Proceedings of the 7 International Language and Development Conference Addis Ababa… · 2014-09-26 · Development Conference which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 26 to

Language and Development :

Africa and Beyond

Proceedings of the 7th International

Language and Development Conference

Addis Ababa, 26-28 October 2005

edited by

Hywel Coleman

Language and Development : Africa and Beyond

Proceedings of the 7th International Language and Development Conference,

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 26-28 October 2005

Edited by Hywel Coleman

First published 2007

British Council

Adewa Avenue

PO Box 1043

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

www.britishcouncil.org

The views expressed in the papers comprising this volume are those of the authors

and not necessarily those of the British Council.

All rights reserved

ISBN 978-99944-813-0-9

Contents

Chapter 1

Introduction : Language and the silent observers of development

Hywel Coleman 1

Strand 1 : Multilingualism and questioning the role of English

Chapter 2

Language use optimisation as a strategy for national development

Herman M. Batibo 12

Chapter 3

Language policy in selected African countries : Achievements

and constraints

Hélène Fatima Idris, Karsten Legère and Tove Rosendal 21

Chapter 4

Moving towards bilingual education in Africa

John Clegg 40

Chapter 5

The impact of learning with the mother tongue on academic achievement :

A case study of Grade 8 students in Ethiopia

Teshome Nekatibeb 51

Chapter 6

Mother tongue and other tongue in primary education : Can equity

be achieved with the use of different languages?

Gideon P.E.Cohen 62

Chapter 7

English as the language for development in Pakistan : Issues,

challenges and possible solutions

Fauzia Shamim 76

Strand 2 : Language in critical and post-conflict contexts

Chapter 8

Language, disasters and development

Psyche Kennett 92

Chapter 9

The role of English in the post-war development of Sudan

Mohamed Hassan Dardig 102

Chapter 10

Lessons from a training project in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka

Richard Lunt and Amy Hamlyn 107

Strand 3 : Language and development projects and their design

Chapter 11

Words, power and the personal in development

Robert Chambers 119

Chapter 12

The dangers of matrix thinking in international curriculum project design

Adrian Holliday 130

Chapter 13

Resistance in ‘English for Academic Purposes’ classrooms at the Ethiopian

Civil Service College

Nigussie Negash 138

Chapter 14

Ethiopian teachers’ evaluation of a language improvement programme

Ahmed Siraj, Almaz Baraki and Judith Altshul 151

Chapter 15

Telling stories, understanding lives, working toward change

Kath Copley, Graham Haylor and William Savage 164

Contributors 173

Coleman Introduction 1

Chapter 1

Introduction : Language and the silent observers of development1

Hywel Coleman

Background

The Language & Development Conferences have been held biennially since 1993 in

different parts of the developing world. The conferences are organised on a non-

profit making basis by organisations which have an interest in language, education

and development. Their purpose is to provide a forum in which issues relating to

language policy and language learning and teaching in development contexts can be

discussed. It is hoped that participants will include policy makers, language

educators, development professionals and representatives of donor and lending

organisations.

Each conference has generated published proceedings. The full list of conferences,

with their host organisations and subsequent publications, is shown in Table 1.

Table 1 : Language & Development Conferences, 1993-2005

1st Language & Development Conference, Bangkok, Thailand, 1993

Host : Asian Institute of Technology

Theme : ‘Issues in Language & Development’

· Kenny, B. & Savage, W. (eds). 1997. Language and Development : Teachers in a Changing

World. London : Longman.

2nd Language & Development Conference, Bali, Indonesia, 1995

Host : Indonesia Australia Language Foundation

Theme : ‘Language & Communication in Development : Stakeholders’ Perspectives’

· Crooks, T. and Crewes, G. (eds). 1995. Language and Development. Denpasar : Indonesia

Australia Language Foundation.

· Crooks, T. (ed.). 1996. ESP in Southeast Asia. Denpasar : Indonesia Australia Language

Foundation.

3rd Language & Development Conference, Langkawi, Malaysia, 1997

Host : National Institute of Public Administration

Theme : ‘Access, Empowerment, Opportunity’

· Abdullah, A., Crocker, T. et al. (eds). 1998. Language in Development : Access, Empowerment,

Opportunity. Kuala Lumpur : National Institute of Public Administration (INTAN).

4th Language & Development Conference, Hanoi, Vietnam, 1999

Host : Asian Institute of Technology

Theme : ‘Partnership & Interaction in Language & Development’

· Shaw, J., Lubelska, D. & Noullet, M. (eds). 2000. Partnership and Interaction. Bangkok : Asian

Institute of Technology.

5th Language & Development Conference, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 2001

Host : IDP Education Australia

Theme : ‘Defining the Role of Language in Development’

· LoBianco, J. (ed.). 2002. Voices from Phnom Penh : Development and Language : Global

Influences and Local Effects. Melbourne : Language Australia.


6th Language & Development Conference, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 2003

Co-hosts : Ministry of Higher & Specialised Secondary Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan and

British Council Uzbekistan

Theme : ‘Linguistic Challenges to National Development & International Cooperation’

· Coleman, H., Gulyamova, J. & Thomas, A. (eds). 2005. National Development, Education and

Language in Central Asia and Beyond. Tashkent : British Council Uzbekistan.

7th Language & Development Conference, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2005

Co-hosts : Ministry of Education of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and British Council

Ethiopia

Theme : ‘Language & Development’

· Coleman, H. (ed.). 2007. Language and Development : Africa and Beyond. Addis Ababa : British

Council Ethiopia.

The present volume constitutes the edited proceedings of the 7th

Language &

Development Conference which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 26 to 28

October 2005. The conference was hosted jointly by the Ministry of Education of the

Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and by the British Council in Ethiopia.

The 7th

Language & Development Conference is one of only two in the series so far

not to have taken place in Southeast Asia (the other being its immediate predecessor,

the 6th

Language & Development Conference of 2003, held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan)

and it is the first so far to be held in Africa.

Unlike some of the earlier events in the series, the theme of the Addis Ababa

conference was very broad : ‘Language and Development’. Under this umbrella, two

sub-themes were identified in the conference call for papers : Language and its role in

development and Language teaching in development contexts (www.langdev.org).

The conference organisers predicted that a number of ‘focus areas’ under these two

headings would be explored, as shown in Table 2.

Table 2 : Predicted focus areas of 7

th Language & Development Conference, Addis Ababa, 2005

A) Language and its role in development

• The relationship between language and development

• Language policy

• Local versus international languages and development

• Global issues (conflict resolution, good governance, ICT, etc) and their relationship to language

and development,

• Federalism, language and development, etc

B) Language teaching in development contexts

• Promoting effective language learning in development contexts

• Teaching language in a resource-poor environment

• Teacher education

• Supported open learning of languages in developing countries

• Communicative language teaching and cultural differences

• Curriculum reform and textbook development

However, as conference preparations progressed, it became apparent that the papers

which were being submitted and selected for presentation were tending to fall into

four different categories :


· Language and development

· Language and conflict, language and federalism

· Language and identity

· Language and education.

In total 31 papers were presented during the conference; 26 of these were later written

up and submitted for possible inclusion in this volume. From this number, fourteen

have been selected to provide a representative cross-section of the issues which were

explored during the conference. As a consequence of the selection process, the focus

of the book has moved to some extent away from the original conference theme. The

volume is now organised around three strands :

· Multilingualism and questioning the role of English

· Language in critical and post-conflict contexts

· Language and development projects and their design.

The remainder of this chapter provides a brief description of each chapter within the

three strands. Where appropriate, cross-cutting themes and issues are identified.

Multilingualism and questioning the role of English

The first strand, which occupies the first half of the volume, addresses issues relating

to multilingualism in society and in education and, incidentally, it questions the role

of English. Six of the seven chapters in this strand focus on Africa.

In his opening chapter ‘Language use optimisation as a strategy for national

development’ (Chapter 2), Herman M. Batibo surveys the sociolinguistic situation in

the 55 nations of sub-Saharan Africa. He finds that indigenous languages are widely

used for official purposes in only two of these countries. The majority of African

nations are using the former colonial language (for example, English), either

exclusively or in combination with an indigenous language. Batibo observes that the

people of many African countries ‘are unable to involve themselves fully in [their]

country’s affairs’ because they cannot understand or express themselves in their

country’s official language. He concludes, therefore, that the indigenous languages

are being seriously under-utilised in national affairs and, because of the

communication barriers created by these language policies, many communities are

experiencing ‘stagnation’ or only very slow transformation. The chapter argues that

an ‘optimal language use approach’, based on objective ideological planning rather

than logistical convenience, would be a more appropriate strategy. Such an approach

would turn African multilingualism into a developmental asset.

The contribution by Hélène Fatima Idris, Karsten Legère and Tove Rosendal in

Chapter 3 (‘Language policy in selected African countries : Achievements and

constraints’) complements Batibo’s survey by examining current language policy in

three African nations : Namibia, Cameroon and Sudan. The authors find some slight

indications of positive development : in Namibia, twelve languages other than English

are used as media of instruction, at least in the first three years of schooling; in

Cameroon, a mother tongue project using 30 local languages and involving over 9,000

pupils has been producing successful results; in Sudan, the 2004 peace treaty has

opened the way to recognition of all indigenous languages. But in general the


authors’ findings are gloomy. For instance, Namibia’s official language (English) is

one which is spoken by so few people that it made no appearance as a home language

in the 2001 census. In Cameroon, use of the mother tongues in schools is banned. In

Sudan, language policy is a highly sensitive political issue. As a consequence of

language policy in these three countries, those who most urgently deserve socio-

economic advancement are excluded from national consultation processes. In a

conclusion which mirrors Batibo’s in the preceding chapter, Idris, Legère and

Rosendal declare that these people are ‘reduced to silent objects of development’ – a

powerful phrase which has been adapted for the title of this introductory chapter.

In Chapter 3 (‘Moving towards bilingual education in Africa’), John Clegg analyses

the risks associated with using a second language (particularly English) as the

medium of instruction in education systems in Africa. He builds on substantial work

which he has published elsewhere, including a contribution to the 6th

Language &

Development Conference of 2003 (Clegg 2005). In the present chapter he moves the

argument forward in two ways. First, he points out that education programmes which

are delivered in the learners’ second language may indeed be successful, but only

when certain conditions are fulfilled – and these are conditions which are generally

not available in sub-Saharan Africa. Secondly, he identifies doubts about the value of

the brief phase of first language medium education which learners experience in the

first year or two of schooling in some African countries. Evidence suggests that this

phase of learning through the mother tongue is too brief to offset the disadvantages of

later education through English or another European language.

From Clegg’s continent-wide discussion we move to the specific context of Ethiopia

in Chapter 5 (‘The impact of learning with the mother tongue on academic

achievement : A case study of Grade 8 students in Ethiopia’). Here, Teshome

Nekatibeb examines the impact on student learning of the use of the mother tongue.

Seventeen (from a total of more than 80) of Ethiopia’s languages are now used as

media of instruction. Nekatibeb considers four of these languages and finds that, by

Grade 8, children studying Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology through

their mother tongue achieve significantly higher examination scores than do those

studying through English. Among other important conclusions, Nekatibeb also finds

that learning with the mother tongue is the second strongest variable which explains

variation in student achievement. The evidence from the specific context of Ethiopia

thus supports the argument put forward by Clegg in the preceding chapter.

Whilst the authors of the four preceding chapters have argued unequivocally for wider

use of mother tongues, both in education and in other contexts, Gideon Cohen

suggests in Chapter 6 (‘Mother tongue and other tongue in primary education : Can

equity be achieved with the use of different languages?’) that a more measured

approach is required. Cohen’s point is that – at least in Ethiopia and, by implication,

elsewhere – the reality of the situation is such that an insistence on the use of mother

tongues in the education system may be counterproductive, however desirable it may

be in theory. This is because languages are not all equally resourced and do not all

have equal value in society as it is currently constructed. Educating children through

the medium of different languages may therefore have the consequence of providing

them with differential advantages or disadvantages. Cohen’s central question then is

whether children in Ethiopia obtain an equal quality of primary education and gain

equal access to opportunities in society if they are educated in different languages.


As we have seen, several contributions to the first strand have raised questions about

the role of English (and other European languages) in the socio-economic and

education systems of a number of countries in Africa. Idris, Legère and Rosendal in

Chapter 3, for example, are particularly critical of the dominant role which English

plays in Namibia, to such an extent that a large percentage of the population is

condemned to play the role of silent witness to the country’s development. Fauzia

Shamim, discussing ‘English as the language for development in Pakistan : Issues,

challenges and possible solutions’ (Chapter 7), highlights how important English has

become in contemporary Pakistan as a marker of education and as a key which opens

doors to higher education, employment and influence. Yet at the same time the

facilities available in Pakistan for learning English (except for the wealthiest and most

privileged members of society) are extremely limited and inadequate. Consequently,

according to Shamim’s analysis, a state of ‘language apartheid’ exists in her country.

A similar situation has been identified in Indonesia (Lamb & Coleman forthcoming)

and – as we have seen already – in Namibia. However, Shamim goes beyond simply

problematising the role that English plays in Pakistan and, pragmatically, she

recommends a multilingual policy in which competence in English and Urdu would

be developed side by side.

Language in critical and post-conflict contexts

The second strand consists of just three chapters of which one looks exclusively at a

context in Africa. The theme which connects all three contributions is language in

critical situations, including natural disasters and human-created disasters such as war

and civil conflict.

The strand is introduced by Psyche Kennett’s ‘Language, disasters and development’

(Chapter 8). Drawing on a range of contexts, Kennett begins by questioning the

widely held assumption that disasters lead to development (by offering an opportunity

for rebuilding). Rather, she argues, development activity is just as likely to increase

vulnerability to further disaster. She then focuses on developments in Qatar (where as

a side effect of the American invasion of Iraq the school curriculum for English has

been revised in an innovative and positive way) and Sri Lanka (where the impact of

the tsunami has failed to lead to sustainable communication between the Sinhala and

Tamil communities). Provocatively, Kennett highlights ‘the fundamental right to be

able to communicate in one’s own language’ when seeking help after a disaster but

shows that this basic right is rarely respected. Her conclusion is that aid organisations

need to seek an appropriate balance between English and local languages which will

empower those who are the targets of their aid. English should become a useful

‘intermediary tool’ in the aid process, rather than an imperialist imposition. In this

way, Kennett’s conclusion chimes with the theme of questioning the role of English

which emerged from the first strand.

Hassan Dardig’s discussion in Chapter 9 focuses on ‘The role of English in the post-

war development of Sudan’. Dardig traces the history of English in Sudan, from its

first arrival at the end of the 19th

Century through to the current phase following the

signing of the 2004 peace agreement. He also looks briefly to the future. Despite

Sudan’s turbulent history over the last century and the disaster which is currently

being experienced in Darfur, Dardig adopts a remarkably optimistic standpoint.


English, he argues, has the potential to overcome the negative associations which it

has carried with it in the past and it can play the role of a neutral medium of

communication between elements of society which, historically, have experienced

great difficulty in understanding each other.

In Chapter 10 we return to Sri Lanka. Richard Lunt and Amy Hamlyn’s discussion of

‘Lessons from a training project in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka’ describes a

teacher development project which was deliberately directed at two areas of the

country which have been most severely affected by the disruption of inter-community

conflict over two decades. At one level, the chapter is a report of an innovative

language and development project, which would qualify it for inclusion in the third

strand of this collection. At another level, however, it is significant that this project

was designed specifically for a post-conflict situation. The training workshops

required members of different communities to come together, and one of the

outcomes appears to have been increased understanding – albeit on a small scale –

between teachers from these communities.

Efforts to understand the roles of language in critical contexts, including conflict and

post-conflict situations, are still in their infancy. The three chapters presented here

offer important indicators for future work in this area.

Language and development projects and their design

The third strand concerns itself with development projects in general, with language

projects in particular (and especially English language projects) and with the design of

those projects. Each of the five chapters in this strand examines an aspect of the role

of language in development projects.

The strand is introduced by Robert Chambers’ thought provoking contribution

‘Words, power and the personal in development’ (Chapter 11). Chambers suggests

that there are three aspects of development projects which have received insufficient

attention so far :

• the language used by development professionals

• power in development projects

• what sort of people development professionals are and how they behave.

Analysing widely used documents Chambers shows how the rhetoric subtly but

consistently denies power to those who are intended to benefit from development and

gives power to those who are delivering development. In manifold ways, the

supposed beneficiaries of development activities are disenfranchised through the

language which is used. Again, then, we encounter the phenomenon of

disenfranchisement through inappropriate language policies which has already been

so well recognised throughout this collection. Chambers concludes with a number of

recommendations which aim to raise the awareness of all parties to the development

process regarding the language which they use in their interactions with each other.2

Adrian Holliday discusses very similar issues in his chapter ‘The dangers of matrix

thinking in international curriculum project design’ (Chapter 12). Drawing on his

most recent book (Holliday 2005), he argues that English language development

projects are often permeated by a ‘projectised discourse’ which carries inherent


dangers with it. Holliday suggests that concepts such as ‘efficiency’, ‘learner

centredness’ and ‘participation’ all tend to technicalise the discourse of projects and

depersonalise the relationships between the people who are involved in those projects.

He concludes by recommending that development professionals adopt critical

qualitative research as a means for achieving understanding of the contexts in which

they work.

In Chapter 13 we move from the broad perspective adopted by Chambers and

Holliday to the context of one specific language development project in Ethiopia. In

this chapter, ‘Resistance in ‘English for Academic Purposes’ classrooms at the

Ethiopian Civil Service College’, Nigussie Negash describes his attempts to introduce

a major innovation in language teaching methodology in his institution and the ways

in which his students resisted the innovations. Negash is admirably honest in

recording the modes of resistance which his students employed. Some of these were

subtle and complex and involved students collaborating to find ways of appearing to

undertake group assignments outside class without actually doing so. The irony of

this is that students were collaborating effectively even though their collaboration

involved not language learning but ‘cheating’. Negash concludes that it is necessary

to have a detailed understanding of the social context of the classroom in order to

appreciate why students found the teacher’s proposed innovation so threatening.

Ahmed Siraj, Almaz Baraki and Judith Altshul also examine a specific language

teaching innovation in Ethiopia in their contribution ‘Ethiopian teachers’ evaluation

of a language improvement programme’ (Chapter 14). A programme which was

initially designed to improve the English language competence of English teachers

was extended to teachers of other subjects. The programme evaluation which Siraj,

Baraki and Altshul carried out revealed (perhaps not surprisingly) that the non-

English language teachers found some aspects of the programme inappropriate for

their needs. Less predictably, however, both the language teachers and their

colleagues who taught other subjects identified the methodology of the programme as

one of its most important features. Many informants claimed that the ways in which

they had studied on the programme would have an influence on their own teaching.

The final chapter, by Kath Copley, Graham Haylor and William Savage, returns to the

context on which their contribution to the 2003 Language & Development Conference

was based, that is the Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management

(STREAM) initiative in South and Southeast Asia. In their earlier work (Copley,

Haylor & Savage 2005), the authors identified a number of lessons which they had

learnt regarding communication with stakeholders. In their contribution to the present

volume, ‘Telling stories, understanding lives, working toward change’ (Chapter 15),

the authors focus on their work in India. They emphasise that work in development

demands much more than the achievement of pre-determined and measurable

indicators. More important, they claim, is ‘sharing of ourselves, being open to change

and to being transformed’. In this way, Copley, Haylor and Savage are confirming

Chambers’ concern with the ‘personal’ in development.


Conclusion

Across the varied contexts which are discussed in the fourteen contributions to this

volume, a number of common themes emerge :

• It is foolish not to recognise the resource which the multilingual nature of African

society (and that in many other parts of the world) offers.

• It is essential to provide the linguistic means to enable the beneficiaries of

development to take an active role in the planning, implementation and evaluation

of development activities. This is particularly the case in emergencies associated

with conflicts and natural disasters.

• The value of the first language as the medium of instruction in basic education

cannot be underrated (even if some languages have more or less social prestige

than others).

• The role of English in development is sometimes problematic (however

uncomfortable that may make us, the language education professionals).

• Attention needs to be given to the possibility of English being taught as part of a

multilingual package.

• All who are involved in development activities need to be constantly alert to the

possibility that inappropriate power differentials are being created through the

discourse of development.

• The ethical, personal and interpersonal aspects of involvement in development

demand as much of our attention as does the mechanistic measurement of

achievements.

• There will always be unexpected outcomes of development activity, however

carefully that activity is planned. These outcomes may be positive (teachers being

inspired to modify their teaching behaviours after attending a language course) or

they may be negative (students expending much ingenuity and effort to avoid

innovative ways of learning).

These are exciting findings and they constitute the skeleton of an extensive research

agenda. But one wonders what impact these findings will actually have. As the editor

of two collections of papers from Language & Development Conferences, perhaps I

can be permitted to offer some thoughts on the function of these conference

publications.

It is striking that in fact there is very little cross referencing by contributors to the

Language & Development Conferences back to presentations at earlier conferences in

the series. This may be for two reasons. The first is that the conferences are

peripatetic, wandering the globe from Bangkok to Addis Ababa, from Bali to

Tashkent. There are obviously great strengths in having the conferences move from

one context to another in the developing world in this way. However, the drawback is

that - apart from a very small number of privileged individuals (of whom I am one) –

there is almost no continuity of participation from one conference to another.

Inevitably, therefore, there is very little inherited wisdom which is passed from one

conference to another.

The second reason is that, for the most part, the publications emerging from the

Language & Development Conferences are not widely available and have a very

limited distribution. It is significant, for example, that the British Library of

Development Studies (BLDS) at the University of Sussex records none of the six


volumes preceding the present one in its catalogue. Similarly the online bookseller

Amazon recognises only the first of the six publications (Kenny & Savage 1997); the

others are apparently unobtainable.

The conclusion seems to be, therefore, that the language and development profession

has not yet created the means by which it can develop itself and learn from

experience. The fourteen chapters in this volume record a great deal of hard work and

they offer many lessons for anyone concerned about language policy and language

education in the developing world. Let us hope that this experience and these lessons

can be shared widely in the future.

Notes 1 I am grateful to British Council Ethiopia for inviting me to edit this volume. I am particularly grateful

to Simon Mills, Nejat Nuru and Netsanet Demewoz for their suggestions and their patience. Many

thanks to all the contributors to this collection for their willing cooperation. Thanks also to M.Ikbal

Udayah for his assistance with the preparation of diagrams.

2 Contributors to earlier Language & Development conferences have made similar proposals.

Examples include Coleman 1995, 2002 and Khan and Lubelska 2005.

References

Clegg, J. 2005. Recognising and countering linguistic disadvantage in English-

medium education in Africa. In H.Coleman, J.Gulyamova and A.Thomas (eds),

National Development, Education and Language in Central Asia and Beyond, 78-

92. Tashkent : British Council Uzbekistan.

Coleman, H. 1995. Problematising stakeholders : Who are the holders and what are

the stakes? In T.Crooks and G.Crewes (eds), Language and Development, 45-61.

Denpasar, Indonesia : Indonesia Australia Language Foundation

Coleman, H. 2002. Evaluating development programmes : Time to watch our

language. In J.LoBianco (ed.), Voices from Phnom Penh : Development &

Language : Global Influences & Local Effects, 103-116. Melbourne, Australia :

Language Australia.

Copley, K., Haylor, G. and Savage, W. 2003. Facilitating languages, participation

and change : National and regional cases. In H.Coleman, J.Gulyamova and

A.Thomas (eds), National Development, Education and Language in Central Asia

and Beyond, 124-133. Tashkent : British Council Uzbekistan.

Holliday, A.R. 2005. The Struggle to Teach English as an International

Language. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Kenny, B. and Savage, W. (eds). 1997. Language and Development : Teachers in a

Changing World. London : Longman.


Khan, S. and Lubelska, D. 2005. Unpacking words. In H.Coleman, J.Gulyamova

and A.Thomas (eds), National Development, Education and Language in Central

Asia and Beyond, 142-146. Tashkent : British Council Uzbekistan.

Lamb, M. and Coleman, H. Forthcoming, 2008. Literacy in English and the

transformation of self and society in Post-Soeharto Indonesia. In C.Stroud and L.Wee

(eds), Political Economies of Literacy in Multilingual Southeast Asia. (Special

issue of International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.)

Strand 1 : Multilingualism and questioning the role of English

Batibo Language use optimisation

12

Chapter 2

Language use optimisation as a strategy for national development

Herman M. Batibo

Introduction

When most of the African countries gained their independence between the late 1950s

and the early 1960s, they were faced with many challenges in shaping their

nationhood and stimulating national development in the direction of becoming

modern states. Apart from dismantling the many colonial legacies which they had

inherited, they had to satisfy the three important national needs that Fishman (1971)

has referred to as unification, authenticity and modernity. The new states needed

unity of the many and diverse ethnic groups which constituted semi-autonomous

ethno-linguistic entities; identity of their sovereignties as states in their own right; and

development to be part of the modern world, in both the socio-economic and

technological spheres. The most challenging realities that most of these states had to

grapple with were the prevailing multilingual and multiethnic phenomena. Most of

them took a short-cut by adopting an exoglossic language policy, in which the ex-

colonial language was adopted as official language and, in some cases, served also as

national language.1 Only a handful of countries adopted an endoglossic policy by

promoting one or several of the major indigenous languages to play certain national

roles. In most African countries, the national linguistic resources remained under-

exploited, mainly because of the lack of proper language planning.

This chapter examines the sociolinguistic profile of Africa, with special focus on the

under-utilisation of the indigenous languages in national affairs, their exclusion in

national participation due to the use of external media and the general stagnation or

slow transformation of some communities due to communication barriers. The

chapter then demonstrates how an optimal language use approach could be the best

strategy in turning African multilingualism into a developmental asset.

Endoglossic and exoglossic policies of language use among African countries

One of the many tasks that the newly independent countries of Africa faced in the

early 1960s was the choice of an official language that would not only facilitate

communication and therefore support the various developmental efforts, but would

also provide much needed unity among the many ethnic groups, numbering, in some

cases, over one hundred. Such a national medium was also expected to provide

national identity and self-determination for the sovereign state.

The African countries had to choose between an endoglossic and exoglossic policy.

An endoglossic policy involves the promotion of one or several indigenous languages

as official or national languages, whilst the exoglossic policy involves the adoption of

the ex-colonial language, external to the country, as an official or national language.

Four categories of country have emerged in terms of choice and implementation of an

official language policy (Batibo 2006). But before looking in detail at these four


13

categories we need to consider the domains in which languages function. The

primary domain includes activities which involve family, village and intra-ethnic

communication, whereas the secondary domain includes central and local

administration, inter-ethnic communication and other public interaction. Within the

secondary domain two layers can be recognised : the lower secondary includes all

non-technical public communication within a nation; the upper secondary includes

technical communication with the outside world such as diplomacy, international

communication, science, technology and tertiary education.

Returning to the four categories of country, the first consists of those countries in

which all official and national functions are performed by an indigenous language.

The ex-colonial language has become a mere foreign language in the country. The

only countries in this category are the Arab countries in North Africa which gained

their independence many decades ago, namely Egypt and Libya.

The second category comprises those countries in which an indigenous lingua franca

has been promoted to serve as both official and national language. In such countries,

the indigenous language is used in both primary and secondary domains. However,

the ex-colonial language may continue to be the language in some upper secondary

domains. The dominant indigenous language assumes most public roles such as

government business, local administration, primary and secondary education,

judiciary, parliament, social services, trade and commerce, and the media. In fact,

such an endoglossic policy is possible only in those countries where historical

legacies or political developments have created a favourable linguistic ecosystem.

The only countries in this category (outside North Africa) are Tanzania (Kiswahili),

Somalia (Somali) and Ethiopia (Amharic). As remarked by Batibo (1997:203) and

Mohammed Abdulaziz (personal communication), these three countries all had

socialist governments at the time that they initiated rigorous programmes to develop

and effectively use their respective languages in promoting nationalistic sentiments

and mobilising the masses in national activities. In these countries, the ex-colonial

language plays a minimal role, mainly as a second official language. However, there

are also Arab countries which use Arabic as the dominant official or national language

but which have retained the use of an ex-colonial language for some secondary

domains. These include Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco, Sudan2 and Tunisia.

The third category consists of those countries in which the ex-colonial language plays

a major role, often as the main official language, but an indigenous language (or

languages) has been designated as a national language or allocated certain secondary

public functions. The role of the dominant indigenous language may range from that

of a national or semi-official language, such as in the cases of Kenya

(English/Kiswahili) and Botswana (English/Setswana), to a mere symbolic role, such

in as the case of countries which have declared all or several of the indigenous

languages to be national or even official languages without necessarily effectively

using them in any formal domains, apart from lower education and a few other

circumstances. This is the case of countries like Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe and

Central African Republic. In some cases, several languages have been selected to

represent the different zones of the country, as in the case of Nigeria (English/Hausa,

Yoruba and Igbo) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (French/Lingala, Kikongo,

Luba-Katanga and Kiswahili).


14

The fourth category is that of countries which, due to the complexity of their linguistic

ecosystems (Igboanusi & Wolf 2004) or colonial legacies, have decided to make the

ex-colonial language both official and national. In many of these countries (for

example, Angola, Benin, Eritrea, Gabon, Togo, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia),

there is no nationally dominant language which can assume the lingua franca role. In

others, because of the assimilationist nature of colonial rule (as adopted particularly

by the French and Portuguese), no indigenous language was given the opportunity to

play a national lingua franca role. The countries which have adopted an ex-colonial

language as official or national language include Angola, Benin, Côte d‘Ivoire,

Gabon, Gambia, Guinea Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. In these countries, the ex-

colonial languages are used in most of the secondary domains. In some countries,

such as the Comoro Islands, Eritrea and Chad, Arabic has been introduced as one of

the official languages. One of the reasons why so many countries decided to adopt

the ex-colonial languages as the only or main national media, particularly in the

official and technical areas, was that the ex-colonial languages were already highly

developed and internationally used. Moreover, they were considered to be neutral and

therefore would not arouse the resentment of any ethnic group.

The case of South Africa is unique, as it does not fit into any of these categories. Its

new language policy has declared eleven languages to be official. However, so far the

effective official languages are English (an ex-colonial language) and Afrikaans (the

only local official language during the apartheid era). The nine indigenous languages

have remained largely symbolic.

Table 1 : Use of ex-colonial or dominant indigenous languages among African countries and

territories (Batibo 2006)

Language

Category Description

Number of

countries

1 Endoglossic Exclusive use of an indigenous language as official/national

medium 2 (3.6 %)

2 Largely

endoglossic

Use of an indigenous language as official/national medium, with

limited use of an ex-colonial language 8 (14.6 %)

3 Largely

exoglossic

Use of an ex-colonial language as official/national medium, with

symbolic/limited use of an indigenous language in secondary

domains

27 (49.1%)

4 Exoglossic Exclusive use of ex-colonial language as official/national medium 18 (32.7%)

Total 55 (100.0%)

As Table 1 shows, most African countries have adopted an exoglossic policy or have

accorded only minimal secondary functions to the indigenous languages. The

majority of countries in Africa (categories 3 and 4, that is 81.2%), have adopted an

exoglossic language policy, in that they rely heavily on an ex-colonial language for

their official or national communication. Only a small percentage of countries

(categories 1 and 2) use an indigenous language, either exclusively or dominantly, in

their national affairs. Such countries are generally considered to be models in the use

of local languages in formal domains.


15

Monolingual and multilingual language promotion policies in Africa

The African countries which adopted a largely endoglossic policy had to choose

between two options, namely a monolingual and a multilingual promotion policy.

According to the monolingual policy, only one language and culture, usually that of

the majority, would be adopted as the national language and culture to the exclusion

of the minority languages. In fact, this is the policy used in Europe, where dominant

languages like English, French and Spanish were adopted in their respective countries

at the expense of minority languages like Alsatian, Basque, Breton, Catalan, Cornish,

Irish Gaelic, Lorrainian, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh and others. The advantage of this

approach is that it promotes one national medium of communication for the whole

country and allows for one cultural identity and a sense of common belonging. But

such a policy tends to marginalise the speakers of the other languages who are then

forced to operate in a language in which they have no or limited competence.

On the other hand, the multilingual policy advocates the promotion and use of each

language and culture in the country. This approach allows the codification and

elaboration of each of the languages for use within its own socio-political and cultural

confines. The extent to which each language will be used in the public domains

would depend on its size, vitality and level of development. This approach, despite its

many costs and logistic problems, has the advantage of encouraging the development

and use of each of the languages in a country. Moreover, it gives equal chances to all

citizens to participate in national affairs, therefore contributing to true democracy.

Most African countries which opted for the endoglossic policy adopted a monolingual

approach because of their great need to foster unity and national identity. These

countries include Botswana (Setswana), Malawi (Chichewa)3, Tanzania (Kiswahili),

Zimbabwe (Chishona), Central African Republic (Sango), Kenya (Kiswahili),

Ethiopia (Amharic)4 and most of the Arab countries.

On the other hand, only a few African countries have adopted the multilingual

approach. Moreover, those which have done so have adopted the policy only partially

by :

a) declaring all languages in the country to be national languages, but using them

only in limited domains such as primary education or local administration, as in the

case of Namibia;

b) selecting several languages - usually the major ones - and making them

national or official languages; these languages are then given roles ranging from

active public use to mere symbolic status, as is the case in South Africa;

c) promoting the major dominant languages for use in their respective areas in

some of the domains like education, local administration and social welfare, as in the

Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Ethiopia (before the introduction of its

new language policy).

Language use optimisation approach

When most African countries opted either for an exoglossic language policy or an

endoglossic policy with a monolingual approach, the decisions were reached mainly

on political or logistical grounds. No objective ideological planning was carried out.


16

According to Whiteley (1971), ideological planning is central to the success of any

language policy. Ideological planning is a process in which the decision-makers have

to make an explicit pronouncement about the language policy of the country. The

policy should state clearly which language will be used for government business,

public administration, education, science, mass media, diplomacy, international

relations, legal matters, commerce and trade, social services and so on. The policy

decision should be based on thorough and objective research as well as consultation

with the people.

However, most African governments declared their policies through political decrees

based on logistical convenience rather than the objective realities of the respective

countries. In fact, very few African countries have been explicit in their ideological

planning. As Bamgbose (1991:111) pointed out, most decisions and policies were

characterised by one or more of the following problems : ‘avoidance, vagueness,

arbitrariness, fluctuation, and declaration without implementation’. Many countries

have chosen to be purely pragmatic when it came to matters of language policy.

Due to the lack of proper language planning and effective policy implementation,

many African countries have failed to see developmental value in their languages. In

fact, they see the realities of multilingualism as a stumbling block in their desire to

fulfil Fishman’s ideals of unity, identity and development.

However, as pointed out by Bamgbose (2000:30), language is a powerful symbol of

society, particularly if its potential is fully recognised and exploited. It can be a key

contributing force towards nationhood and national development if properly managed.

The indigenous languages of Africa can therefore be vehicles of national development

if put to proper use. Such languages need to be looked at not as stumbling blocks, but

as potential national resources. As with all other resources, they need to be allocated

in areas where they can be of optimal utility. Hence the choice of languages and their

domains of use needs to be made on strictly economic grounds in much the same way

as for any other resource in the nation’s economy (Fishman 1971, 1974; Jernudd &

Das Gupta 1971). In this way, each nation should look for optimisation of the use of

the national linguistic resource at the least possible cost. But, since language is a

resource with a social rather than an economic value, allowance is usually made for

social and cultural factors which may affect its use. A nation’s languages should,

therefore, be developed and used with the aim of fully involving their speakers, both

cognitively and politically, in the advancement of the nation as a whole.

Since it is not possible, in view of limited resources, to promote all the indigenous

languages in a country to a national level, the most appropriate option is to rank them

in a hierarchy of national importance. The language at each hierarchical level would

be accorded certain public roles.

It is possible to identify a five-tier structure in which languages would be placed

according to their national importance. (See Table 2.) At the top level we would

have the ex-colonial or global language, which would serve as the external window of

the country linking it with the outside world in international communication and

diplomacy. At the second level, we would have the nationally dominant lingua franca

which would serve as both the main official language and the national language. Such

a language would assume most of the national domains including education


17

(particularly secondary and tertiary), central government, science and technology5,

and the main mass media. The third level is that of the major areally6 dominant or

provincial languages which would be used for provincial communication, particularly

in primary education and localised mass media.

Table 2 : An ideal hierarchy of language roles

Level Type of language Domains of use

1 Ex-colonial/global International communication, diplomacy

2 National Central government, education, science and technology, parliament,

magistrate/high court, main mass media, all national communication

3 Provincial Provincial/regional administration, primary education, localised mass

media, all provincial communication

4 Areal Local administration, pre-school, localised mass media, village, all

areal communication

5 Individual Intra-ethnic interaction, family communication and cultural expression

At the fourth level, one would find areal languages which would be used in local

administration, pre-school education and some localised media. Finally at the fifth

level, we have the individual languages whose use would usually be confined to intra-

ethnic interaction, family communication and cultural expression.

This optimal language use hierarchy would have the following implications :

a. The ex-colonial or global language, being a foreign language, would be used only

in international relations, allowing the indigenous national lingua franca to play all

the other national roles.

b. The national language would have full charge of all national affairs, including

most official and technical communication. This would ensure the transfer and

acculturation of technology into the national medium. The promotion of national

languages is possible in most African countries, as over 64% of the countries have

at least one nationally dominant language.

c. The various indigenous languages in the country would be optimally utilised as in

each case the relevant domains would be appropriately and effectively serviced.

d. All the major and minor areally dominant languages would be recognised and

accorded specific roles.

e. The very small languages at level 5 would be confined to village and family use.

Their speakers would usually not expect any public roles for them, because of the

often small number of speakers. Most of the speakers of these languages,

however, would be fluent in one of the languages at the higher levels.

Table 3 : Hierarchy of language roles in Zimbabwe (based on Hachipola 1996)

Level Role Language

1 Official English

2 National Chishona

3 Provincial Sindebele

4 Education, mass media Ikalanga, Shangani, Chitonga, Tshivenda

5 Mass media Chichewa

6 No recognised role Baswa, Hwesa, Kunda, Namya, Chisena, Sesotho, Tshwa, IsiXhosa


18

In fact, the country which has tried to establish a hierarchy of language use close to

the one proposed in Table 2 is Zimbabwe (Hachipola 1996:4) as shown in Table 3.

Conclusion

The handling of the indigenous languages since the African countries gained their

independence in the late 1950s and early 1960s is one of the areas where Africa has

had a ‘false start’ (Dumont 1966). The fact that most African countries adopted an

exoglossic language policy or an endoglossic monolingual approach has meant that

many indigenous languages are under-developed and under-utilised whilst their

speakers are marginalised or excluded from participating in national affairs. Thus,

many citizens in some African countries are denied true democracy and equality,

either because they lack sufficient proficiency in the ex-colonial language or because

they are not mother-tongue speakers of the nationally dominant language. In either

case, they are unable to involve themselves fully in the country’s affairs and their

children may not have equal opportunities in the schooling system. Such a situation

has caused resentment in some African countries, where people from the minority

groups have demanded that their languages and culture should also be recognised.

Moreover, if the present trend is not checked, the ex-colonial languages will continue

to strengthen their positions of prestige at the expense of the indigenous languages. In

fact, the use of foreign languages has adversely affected the earlier aspirations to

unity, identity and development, since many countries still lack the essential features

of nationhood and authenticity.

One needs to acknowledge that all the world’s developed countries have reached their

present positions on the basis of their own national languages; they have adopted and

integrated technology within their own cultural and social values, thus making it

possible for the developments to reach all citizens. It is a fact that no developed

country has developed on the basis of using a foreign language, since development

involves the participation of all citizens in nation-building. It is noteworthy that the

fast-developing countries of Asia, such as China, Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia and

Thailand, base their development strategies on their indigenous languages as this is

the only way to involve the whole population in the development effort and to

meaningfully bring technological advancement within the country’s cultural

framework. In the case of the African countries, it is important that they undertake a

thorough review of their language situation and establish policies which are in line

with their national linguistic resources and the ultimate national goals.

Finally, a multilingual policy of language use would ensure that all or most languages

in a country are described, codified and even used in local literacy activities. Such

languages would be actively used and valued within their spheres. The speakers of

each language would value and be proud of their language and culture because of the

public utility which it provides. This, in turn, would ensure continued

intergenerational language transmission.


19

Notes 1 An ‘official’ language serves as a recognised or approved medium of state affairs, including

government business, legislature, judiciary, education, science and technology and any other formal

and public dealings. On the other hand, a ‘national’ language plays the role of a symbol of identity and

unity (Matthews 1997) as well as a lingua franca among the various groups in a country (Batibo 2005).

2 Following the reconciliation between the Sudanese Government and the rebel movements in the

south, a new language policy has been put in place in which both Arabic and English are official

languages.

3 This was the case during President Kamuzu Banda’s regime.

4 This was the case before the new language policy was implemented.

5 It is important that technology is acculturated and applied through an indigenous language so that it

becomes part of the culture of the respective community.

6 The terms ‘areal’ and ‘areally dominant’ have been adopted from Batibo (2005) to refer to a language

whose sphere of influence is limited to a certain locality where several smaller languages are found.

References

Bamgbose, A. 1991. Language and the Nation : The Language Question in Sub-

Saharan Africa. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press.

Bamgbose, A. 2000. Language and Exclusion : The Consequences of Language

Policies in Africa. London: Transaction Publishers.

Batibo, H.M. 1997. Double allegiance between nationalism and Western

modernisation in language choice : The case of Botswana and Tanzania. In M.Pütz

(ed.), Language Choices : Conditions, Constraints and Consequences, 195-205.

Amsterdam : John Benjamins.

Batibo, H.M. 2005. Language Decline and Death in Africa : Causes,

Consequences and Challenges. Clevedon : Multilingual Matters.

Batibo, H.M. 2006. Marginalisation and empowerment. In M.Pütz, J.A.Fishman and

J.Neff-van Aertselaer (eds), Along the Routes to Power : Explorations of

Empowerment through Language, 261-283. Berlin : Mouton de Gruyter.

Dumont, R. 1966. L’Afrique est mal partie. Paris : Collins.

Fishman, J.A. 1971. The impact of nationalism in language planning. In J.Rubin and

B.Jernudd (eds), Can Language be Planned? Socio-linguistic Theory and Practice

for Developing Nations, 3-28. Honolulu : University Press of Hawaii.

Fishman, J.A. 1974. Advances in Language Planning. The Hague : Mouton de

Gruyter.

Hachipola, S.T. 1996. Survey of the Minority Languages of Zimbabwe. Harare :

Department of African Languages and Literature, University of Zimbabwe.


20

Igboanusi, H. and Wolf, H.G. 2004. Empowerment through English – A realistic

view of the educational promotion of English in post-colonial contexts : The case of

Nigeria. (LAUD Paper Number A597.) Essen : University of Duisburg-Essen.

Jernudd, B. and Das Gupta, J. 1971. Language planning in developing nations. In

J.Rubin and B.Jernudd (eds), Can Language be Planned? Sociolinguistic Theory

and Practice for Developing Nations, 195-215. Honolulu : University Press of

Hawaii.

Matthews, P.H. 1997. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford :

Oxford University Press.

Whiteley W.H. 1971. Language Use and Social Change. London : Oxford

University Press for the International African Institute.

Idris, Legère and Rosendal Language policy in selected African countries 21

Chapter 3

Language policy in selected African countries : Achievements and

constraints

Hélène Fatima Idris, Karsten Legère and Tove Rosendal1

Introduction

This chapter presents a summary of evidence as to how the existence of an official language or languages affects the status and actual use of other languages. At the same time, it deals with the role of language in development. Reference is made to three different contexts in Africa : a) Namibia, an example of a country with a very small number of speakers of English, even though this is the official language of the country, b) Cameroon, which stipulates the use of two non-African official languages, and c) Sudan, with its strong emphasis on Arabic as the official and national language. When opening the Language and Development in Southern Africa Conference (held in Okahandja, Namibia, 11-13 April 2000), the then Namibian Education Minister, John Mutorwa, suggested that the following questions be discussed at the meeting : • Which language(s)? • What development? • Whose development? • At what economic, political and social cost? In this context the Minister argued that ‘… English and French … at first sight may seem to lend themselves to the task of national integration and national unity. Unfortunately, this purpose is only largely achieved among the educated’ (Mutorwa 2001:7). This observation aptly summarises a dilemma in Africa, which has been addressed time and again at conferences, in papers, in policy documents, and so on. The three countries which are the focus of this chapter provide further illustrations of this complex issue. Namibia

During a visit to Tsumkwe (former Bushmanland) in July 2003, the then Namibian President Sam Nuyoma made various significant remarks about the role of languages in his country. For example, he blamed the former South African administration for its emphasis on Afrikaans. He rejected any role for this language in Namibian schools. Referring to ‘national languages’2 or ‘first languages’ (henceforth L1[s]), he made the following points : a) L1s must be promoted; b) Scientific terms in these languages should be coined ‘… so that English, Namibia’s official language, can be phased out’; c) The Nama/Damara (i.e. Khoekhoegowab) and San languages ‘are unique’ and ‘… should be taught widely in the country’.3


In his speech Nuyoma introduced a vision which substantially departs from the current language policy4 as stipulated by the Namibian Constitution5 and other documents. In this context, the words of the President as the supreme guardian of the Constitution might be considered to have considerable significance. Unfortunately, however, his views as summarised above had no impact on the language policy of the country, since he left office in March 2005. In a nutshell, Nuyoma dealt with three important language issues that have been at stake since pre-independence years, namely the status and use of • L1s • Afrikaans • English. English and in particular Afrikaans were the official languages in former South West Africa (Namibia) before independence in 1990. L1s were relegated to the status of being semi-official in the then ‘Bantustan’-like regions.6 The stipulation that English is the sole official language of Namibia is the core element of the Namibian language policy, although a bashful hint in the Constitution (in Article 19) attempts to accommodate other languages. Nevertheless, so far the latter are de jure excluded from official domains (i.e. from the legislative, executive and judiciary); as a consequence, other languages are marginalised and disempowered.7 In addition, this decision in favour of English has set the tune for other domains of language use where English is given preference, e.g. formal education after grade 3 and the media. The population census of 2001 (Republic of Namibia 2003) summarises the linguistic situation in terms of the number and percentage of households where each language is spoken. The most prominent languages are shown in Table 1, with the percentage of households where each language is spoken.

Table 1 : Most frequently spoken languages in Namibia, 2001 (by household)

Language Households where

spoken (%)

Ambo dialects (Oshiwambo) 48 Nama/Damara (Khoekhoegowab) 11 Afrikaans 11 Kavango languages 10 Herero 8

Strangely enough no figures for English can be traced in the 2001 census. In other words, the official language of the Republic of Namibia does not appear in the census statistics which were consulted for this chapter. Accordingly, one has to go back to the 1991 census, when 0.8 per cent of the total population (10,941 persons) were recorded as speaking English as their mother tongue.8 Between 1991 and the present day the number of those proficient in English has certainly increased, but it still remains very low despite the intensive promotion of English as the medium of communication nationwide. At independence, given the low number of English speakers in the country,9 the education system was immediately tasked to teach the official language at all levels.


Thus, English was introduced as a subject from grade 1 onwards. A number of schools – mainly in the urban areas - were turned into English-medium schools where learners are instructed in English from grade 1 onwards. However, for the overwhelming majority of schools a L1, German or Afrikaans remained the medium of instruction (MoI) for grades 1-3 of the lower primary phase, whilst English took over this role in grade 4 and higher grades. From primary grade 4 and beyond all languages other than English were reduced to the status of subjects. Accordingly, Namibia belongs to those African countries that practice a subtractive approach to the MoI issue with all of its negative effects. The status of languages in the Namibian education system (including non-formal education) is summarised in Table 2.

Table 2 : Status of languages in the Namibian education system10

Language a Functional

literacy

MoI in grades

1-3

Subject up

to grade CNE b

University of

Namibia

(Otji-)Herero � � 12 � � Ju|'hoan(-si) � � 3 - -

Khoekhoe(-gowab) � � 12 � � (Ru-)Kwangali � � 12 � � (Oshi-)Kwanyama � � 12 � � (Si-)Lozi � � 12 � � (Ru-)Manyo � � 12 � -

(Thi-)Mbukushu � � 12 � -

(Oshi-)Ndonga � � 12 � � (Se-)Tswana � � 10 - -

Afrikaans � � 12 � � German - � 12 � � English � �and beyond 12 � �

a The glossonyms for the L1s as used in Namibia include an affix which is given here in brackets. b College of National Education (teacher training college)

Table 2 illustrates the far-reaching attention that the Namibian authorities pay to a wide range of their L1s. It can be seen that most of them are taught as subjects up to Grade 12 and teacher training is offered in most of these L1s. Moreover, some of these L1s can be studied at the university. This approach sets an example for other African countries where L1s are excluded from formal education or are inadequately taken into account.

Table 3 : Home language and medium of instruction (selective)11

Language Home language

(total in grades 1-12)

Medium of instruction

(total in grades 1-3)

(Oshi-)Kwanyama 121,473 34,401 (Oshi-)Ndonga 77,807 52,216 Khoekhoe(-gowab) 53,342 7,231 (Otji-)Herero 38,770 7,708 Afrikaans 37,588 11,623 (Si-)Lozi 5,983 6,986 English 3,487 35,801


A breakdown of learners who are enrolled in classes with the major L1s, English, and Afrikaans respectively as the medium of instruction is presented in Table 3. This shows the low number of mother tongue English-speaking children in primary and secondary schools (fewer than 3,500). But, when it comes to the medium of instruction in lower primary schools (the founding years), English is the second largest, surpassed only by Ndonga. Many children are sent to English-medium schools by parents who believe in the inaccurate and untenable claim that the earlier English is introduced, the better their children’s mastery of the language will be. Their decision - which completely ignores pedagogical principles12 - is diametrically opposed to reality. In fact, a submersion approach, as practised in some Western countries, could not be expected to achieve similar results in Namibia, since the majority of learners are rarely exposed to English outside school. It is understandable that parents should want their children to cope well with English, since school leavers must be at a competitive advantage in the job market; well-paid employment is available only for those who are qualified in English or Afrikaans.13 Parents, teachers and officials equate education only with competence and proficiency in English. English is associated with modern life, a good job and high social status. This explains the strong desire to master this language. In contrast to this, a negative attitude towards national languages has emerged, as a job-seeker can rarely find employment equipped only with knowledge of an L1. As a consequence, L1s are stigmatised as being ‘good for nothing’. Furthermore, investments in L1s are rare, as they do not feature high on the Government agenda. There is a lack of support (both in terms of policy enforcement and funding) for L1s which has been felt for many years and, indeed, is still the case.14 However, the AfriLa project ‘Upgrading African languages’, funded by GTZ, has been an important milestone in improving the position of L1s in school. An evaluation of teachers’ and learners’ competence in English reveals the failure of the education system to disseminate English effectively throughout the country. This situation was earlier addressed at the 2000 Language & Development in Southern Africa Conference in the following terms : a) Education through the medium of English … is functioning badly, b) The potential ineffectiveness of English-medium education affects individual education achievements, c) Governments and education authorities do not well understand or acknowledge the potentially limiting effect of using English as MoI (Clegg 2001: 210). The qualifications of teachers are a particularly critical issue in Namibia; poorly qualified teachers almost certainly contribute to the low competence and proficiency in English achieved by their learners. Some eye-opening comments by Philander (2005) have appeared in New Era (a newspaper known for expressing views which are close to those of the Government); discussing the high failure rate of grade 10 learners in the 2004 examinations and the falling standards of education in general, he blames teachers’ incompetence ‘… when teaching through the medium of English’ (Philander 2005:4). As a consequence, he argues, ‘there is a tendency … to revert back to indigenous language education due to the many teaching problems experienced through the medium of English’ (Philander 2005:4).15 These comments help us to understand how uncomfortable many teachers feel if they attempt to use


English as MoI (although, not surprisingly, most teachers would not dare to admit their low English competence to others).

Table 4 : Domains of language use18

DOMAIN SETTING L1 L2/

English

National Assembly (parliament) 0 1

Administration: Central offices 0 a 1

Administration: Regional offices 0 a 1

Administration: Local offices 0 a 1

Law courts: Central 0 1

Law courts: Lower level 0 a 1

Police station 0 a 1

Official

Defence force barracks 0 a 1

Politics Political parties 0.5 1

Religion Church 1 1

Literacy: Stage 1-2 1 0

Literacy: after stage 2 0 1

Schools: Grades 1-3/MOI 1 1 b

Schools: Grades 4-7/MOI 0 1 b

Schools: Secondary/MOI 0 1 b

Schools: Grades 1-3/subject 1 1 b

Schools: Grades 4-7/subject 1 1 b

Teacher training colleges 0 1 c

Education

University 0 1 c

Mass media: Newspapers 0.5 d 1

Mass media: Newspapers on the internet 0.5 1

Mass media: Radio 1 1

Mass media: TV 0.5 e 1

Book production: Fiction 1 1

Media And culture

Book production: Textbooks 1 1

Grass-roots projects 0.5 1

Banks, insurance companies, etc. 0 a 1

Social services 0 a 1

Mass organisations, NGOs 0.5 1

Employment

Foreign NGOs 0.5 1

TOTAL 11.5 29

a Afrikaans and/or L1s are used orally. b In L2 classes there is frequent L1-L2 code switching. c Except for language classes d Swapo News and New Era publish articles in four and five national languages

respectively. The Namibian has a mainly Ndonga section which is also available in the online edition. Omukwetu is published in Ndonga. There are some other journals, published occasionally, which include articles mainly in Ndonga.

e News is broadcast in national languages.

However, even a very limited command of English – which would not be adequate for teaching in school – is sufficient to make a teacher an authority in his/her residential area. The teacher perceives him- or herself to be more educated than others in the


vicinity. This self-perceived authority is also imposed upon learners in the classroom. As a consequence, rote learning and safe talk16 in English classes are normal practice in many schools where non-English speaking children are enrolled.17 The situation of English is indeed far from satisfactory. Substantial support for improving the standards of English competence - through in-service language training and workshops for teachers and trainers - has been made available, but these efforts have not had much impact on education. A summary of the current linguistic situation with regard to language use in Namibia is shown in Table 4. In this summary, a domain in which a particular language is used has tentatively been allocated a numerical weighting. Thus, 1 indicates dominant use of a given language, 0 shows insignificant or zero use of a language, and 0.5 is allocated in situations where a language is used to a certain extent.

Table 4 reveals the overwhelmingly dominant position of English in all formal domains. It is clear from this quantification of the domains in which languages are used in Namibia that English enjoys a much wider distribution than the L1s, since this language is used almost three times more often in formal domains compared with the L1s. Table 4 clearly reflects the implementation of the official language policy, both directly and indirectly. For example, language use in administration, the National Assembly and the judiciary has to comply with Article 3 of the Namibian Constitution. However, while the exclusive use of the official language is strictly observed for written material, oral communication runs counter to this stipulation. In many contexts, several different L1s and, in particular, Afrikaans19 are frequently spoken by civil servants among themselves as well as to their clients, the Namibian public. Yet, as we have seen, the status of the L1s spoken by the overwhelming majority of the population is weak, as they are de jure excluded from all official and some formal domains by the current language dispensation. They are recognised and used only in school. As far as radio broadcasting is concerned, the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) produces L1 radio programmes in the Bushman language Ju|'hoan, in the Khoekhoe, Kwanyama/Ndonga, Herero, Lozi, Kavango languages, in Tswana, as well as in Afrikaans, German and, of course, English. The latter enjoys a more ubiquitous role than that of the L1s in that it is on air for 18 hours a day, from 06:00 until 24:00.20 For three years now, television news has also been read in the L1s. The use of L1s in Namibia will certainly not gain momentum in future. As long as the authoritarian top-down language policy in Namibia is maintained and implemented no substantial use of L1s in formal domains may be expected and these languages will continue to lose ground in public. It is likely that even informal language use will be affected. The L1s, which are already minority languages in functional terms, will probably turn into marginalised languages within one generation, for, judging from the current linguistic reality, the younger generation is increasingly developing a negative attitude towards them. Nevertheless, for the time being at least, for a large portion of the Namibian population, English is still a foreign language.21


In terms of development most Namibians can only indirectly be addressed, as their lack of or inadequate competence in the official language makes active participation in the development dialogue impossible. In view of this fact there is a strong grassroots demand that the President, ministers and other government officials should address national issues in L1s, thus modifying the current language policy.

Cameroon

We move now to Cameroon where the situation is more complex than that in Namibia. With a population of 17,340,702 (CIA 2006), Cameroon is linguistically highly fragmented. There is still debate regarding the exact number of languages in the country : for example, Gordon (2005) lists 279 and Echu (2003) records 247, whilst other researchers have different totals. The languages spoken in the country belong to three of the four language phyla of Africa, i.e. the Afro-Asiatic, the Nilo-Saharan and the Niger-Congo phylum.22 There is no language in Cameroon which is spoken throughout the national territory, with the exception of the official language French, although the latter is a minority language in quantitative terms. Some L1s function as languages of wider communication (LWC). The linguistic atlas of Cameroon (Dieu & Renaud 1983) identifies nine L1s as LWCs that are used at regional or provincial levels, as shown in Table 5.23 Fulfulde, Ewondo and Pidgin English are widely spread, whereas Arabic, Hausa, Kanuri, Wandala and to some extent even Duala and Basaa are used as LWCs in more restricted contexts.

Table 5: Geographical distribution of languages of wider communication in Cameroon24

Region

North Centre, South,

East Littoral West

Fulfulde Ewondo Duala Pidgin English Shua Arabic Basaa Hausa Kanuri

Languages

Wandala

The most frequently used LWC is French, which is prominent in all the so-called ‘Francophone’ provinces25 except the North (where Fulfulde is the lingua franca) and the two English-speaking provinces where Pidgin English is the LWC. At independence in 1961 Cameroon opted for a bilingual policy in response to its colonial past.26 A ‘bilingual’ policy meant a focus on the foreign languages, French and English, which were implanted in the country by the former foreign administration. At the same time, the existence of the L1s was simply ignored. The choice of French-English bilingualism was perhaps considered rational at independence. However, an analysis of the current situation from a socio-economic, educational and ultimately democratic perspective shows that there are serious problems with regard to implementing the official language policy of Cameroon at the grassroots. This has at least been taken into account in the Constitution of Cameroon which stipulates :


The official languages of the Republic of Cameroon shall be English and French, both languages having the same status. The State shall guarantee the promotion of bilingualism throughout the country. It shall endeavour to protect and promote national languages.27

In practice, English and French are used in all official domains (in the legislature, the executive/administration and the judiciary), in education and other formal contexts. Both written and oral communication is conducted primarily in French and English. For example, in the National Assembly, the members of parliament may use either official language, but the proceedings are mostly conducted in French, as most MPs are French speaking. There is, however, a system of simultaneous translation into and out of English. Civil servants have to use either English or French in their communication with members of the public, even if they know the Cameroonian language spoken by their clients. Citizens not knowing the official languages normally come with an interpreter, a relative or another person to assist. Only at the municipal level is it possible to use and to be addressed in the L1s. Widespread lack of proficiency in the languages used by the courts creates considerable problems. Only very rarely do defendants in court cases speak English or French. Thus, interpretation often has to take place in the courtroom. It is not unusual for a member of the public observing the court proceedings to take on the interpreting task on an ad hoc basis. In such circumstances, the accuracy of the interpreting is questionable and consequently the legal rights of the individual may be at risk. Furthermore, lawyers in Francophone provinces rarely speak English in spite of official bilingualism. As a result, even English speakers may find themselves at the same level of disadvantage as people who have no knowledge of either of the official languages. In Cameroon French also plays a significant role in the media, in political activities, religious practice and in the tertiary sector. French is the career language of employment in government and the civil service. French-speaking personnel continue to occupy the highest ranking positions in society. This fact has strongly influenced the attitudes of parents towards the official languages. Echu (2003), quoting Adegbija (2000), says that parents want their children to be introduced to the official languages as early as possible, as proficiency in the two official languages, especially French, is a prerequisite for social or economic development and individual advancement. Inevitably, the rural population are excluded from such opportunities for advancement. It is a well known fact that, de facto, French is more popular than English despite the de jure equality of the two languages, as there are no incentives for Francophones to learn English. They can get jobs as civil servants without being bilingual whereas Anglophones have to learn French because of the latter’s dominant status (Chumbow 1980:298, 301, Echu 2003:9). French has gradually become the LWC through widespread learning of the language by Cameroonians in the post-independence period. French is now the supra-ethnic


medium of communication between Anglophones and Francophones, between speakers of Fulfulde and Francophones who do not speak Fulfulde, and among Francophones who do not share a common Cameroonian language (Echu 2003). The law pledges to provide education in English or French. English is the MoI in the two Western provinces and French in the remaining eight, from first grade through to the end of secondary school. The second official language is introduced as a subject in grade 6. Teachers are obliged to use the MoI in classroom interaction with learners, whilst learners are not allowed to speak to teachers in their L1. Even so, general competence in the two official languages, French and English, remains poor since the average duration of adults’ previous participation in schooling in Cameroon is only 3.5 years.28 Before independence, German and American missionaries preferred L1s such as Basaa, Bulu, Duala, Ewondo and Mungaka for evangelisation and teaching. Bamum and Fulfulde were used for propagating Islam. Since independence, however, the L1s have been restricted to informal domains and they are used mainly at home. Their use in some private schools before 1960, despite the official French assimilation policy, disappeared almost totally after independence. In school the L1s are banned, even though the Law on Education passed by the National Assembly in April 1998 sets out the guidelines for education in Cameroon. This document states that one of the objectives of education is to ‘promote national languages’ (République du Cameroun 1998: Part 1, General Provisions, Section 5, Article 4). However, the central section of the Law deals with the organisation of bilingual education through English-speaking and French-speaking sub-systems, thus ‘reaffirming the national option for biculturalism’ (Chapter 1, Section 15, Article 1).29 The constitution of 1996 and the education legislation of 1998 were not supported by follow-up documents until January 2002, when a decree on the structure of the Ministry of Education was issued. This decree directs the Provincial Education Departments to be responsible for the L1s. The education system, which provides just a rudimentary knowledge of the official languages, if any, is obviously limiting communication, co-operation and subsequently economic development for the masses. The L1s, which are used by the vast majority of the population, are not taught in government schools. Nor is there any role for these languages in public life. They are confined to the private sphere, disempowered and marginalised. Their low status also affects language development, thus diminishing any chance for them to be introduced into new domains which are important for socio-economic advancement. The L1s are used to communicate the chores of everyday life. They also represent the nation’s cultural heritage. Currently, far-reaching changes in the use of the L1s in informal domains are taking place mainly in urban areas, where according to Bitjaa Kody (2001) these languages are losing ground to the official languages. Thus, the use of Ewondo and Duala as LWC in the central province is decreasing whilst French is expanding. Longitudinal studies of language usage twenty years ago and today have shown that in urban areas competence in LWC as well as L1 is eroding. The


L1s are disappearing from family life within endogamic households in the capital Yaoundé. For example, Francophone adults use French at home in 42% of situations, whereas the young generation (10-17 years old) use French in 70% of situations. In addition 32% of the young generation interviewed in Yaoundé did not know any national language and had only French as their medium of communication. Should this trend persist there will be even fewer L1 speakers in future. This will also negatively affect inter-generational language transmission. There is now a tendency towards decentralisation of both responsibility and implementation, as some laws (e.g. République du Cameroun 1998) make provincial institutions responsible for designing practical steps with regard to L1s and subsequently monitoring them. Whether or not this strategy will be successful is hard to say. In the eight years since the Education Law came into force, however, no changes seem to have taken place. L1s have been taught in Cameroon in some private schools for more than 30 years. Since 1981 the L1 initiatives have been incorporated in the Yaoundé university based PROPELCA (Projet de recherche operationelle pour l´enseignement des langues au Cameroun) headed by Maurice Tadadjeu. The objective of PROPELCA is to promote L1s through teaching them at the primary school level. A bilingual curriculum including L1 and the first official language (OL1) is advocated. Following the PROPELCA approach, children learn to read and write in their L1 from grades 1 to 3, with a progressive transition from oral practice and mechanical writing to mathematics and other subjects. The proposed allocation of time for bilingual teaching is shown in Table 6.

Table 6 : Proposed allocation of time for L1 and OL1 in primary school (%)30

Class L1 OL1

1 75% 25% 2 60% 40% 3 40% 60% 4 – 7 15% 85%

Tadadjeu (1995) advocates a trilingual approach, i.e. to master the mother tongue, both orally and in writing, along with OL1, depending on the province in which the pupil lives, and finally the other official language or a LWC. The PROPELCA programme now includes 30 languages, involving 35,000 children.31 Table 7 shows the L1s used both as MoI and as a subject.

Table 7 : Number of pupils and schools involved in PROPELCA 2000-200132

Provinces Languages L1 as MoIa L1 as subject

8 30 97 schools

9,329 pupils 203 schools

24,791 pupils a Reading, writing and numeracy

In a nutshell, the language policy of Cameroon has changed slightly during the last decade towards a more overt and supportive approach regarding the L1s. However, both status and corpus planning are still absent, even if the L1s are included in the new constitution, some laws and decrees. The de jure approach favours bilingualism


with recognition of L1s whereas de facto a linguistic assimilation with French as the dominant language is promoted. As a result, French is more prominent than English in all formal, in particular official, domains as well as in informal contexts. Clearly, it is not easy to develop and implement a language policy in a country with almost 300 languages. Nonetheless, the work of PROPELCA shows a possible practical way of implementing a language policy which not only formally acknowledges the existence of L1s but also assigns them their rightful place in society. In particular the country-wide introduction of L1s in education would be a big step forward for development in Cameroon. Any initiative must however be accompanied by appropriate corpus planning. The two preceding sections have dealt with countries where (a) foreign language(s) as minority languages in quantitative terms are promoted whereas the languages spoken by the masses play a subordinate role in society. The third case study, from Sudan, illustrates a situation where the language of the majority enjoys official support and promotion, although at the expense of L1s including English. Sudan

Similar to Cameroon, the Republic of Sudan is known for its outstanding ethno-linguistic diversity. Well over a hundred different languages are spoken; amongst these, Arabic is the language with the highest number of MT speakers. Arabic is also the LWC of at least 80% of the Sudanese population (Abu-Bakr & Abu-Manga 1997:3). In this capacity Arabic is the vehicle for professional, economic and social integration and success in Sudanese society. As early as 1949, during British colonial rule, Arabic was given the status of being the country’s only official language. This privileged status of Arabic was reconfirmed after Independence in 1956 although, in the South, English was granted special status as the ‘principal language’. The Constitution of the Republic of Sudan ‘permits the development of local languages’ (Republic of Sudan 1998: Part I, Article 3) and states that ‘Sudanese citizens have the right to keep their particular culture, language or religion’ (Part II, Article 27). However, the lack of linguistic research and L1 corpus development (for example, orthographic standardisation) has made the implementation of these clauses difficult. Besides that, it seems that the political will to promote L1s is missing. Furthermore, according to the Sudanese Minister of Education (interviewed by Fatima Idris in 2001), the demand among non-Arabic speaking groups for education in L1 was not very strong. However, the survey of 2002-2003 referred to below demonstrates that L1 education, especially among the southern Sudanese, is in fact high on the language policy agenda. The question of an official role for the other Sudanese languages alongside Arabic in formal domains such as administration and education has been a critical issue for many decades. It has been most acute in southern Sudan, where conflicting views on the status of English, Arabic, and the L1s (here defined as any Sudanese language other than Arabic) have been a factor contributing to the civil war which has been waged since 1956. This war, together with other conflicts and natural disasters such as drought and desertification, has led to massive migrations to urban centres in


northern Sudan. There many migrants (refugees) have learnt Arabic, since it is the predominant LWC in multilingual contexts. Indeed a large percentage of migrants’ children born in Khartoum and other northern Sudanese urban centres acquire Arabic as their mother tongue (Miller & Abu-Manga 1992). The following part of this section gives an account of the Sudanese language policy since the 1970s, its achievements and constraints and the influence of the Sudanese authorities on its implementation. In the 1970s, the Sudanese government made an attempt to recognise the multi-faceted linguistic heritage of the country by selecting southern L1s as MoI in the first two years of primary school in the South. However, southern Sudanese parents objected to the use of these languages in school by arguing that their children would be disadvantaged if they had to compete with Arabic-speaking students in higher education and in the job market. Another complaint at that time concerned the low quality of Arabic language teaching, which also put the southerners at a disadvantage in competition with the northerners. Moreover, in those years, there were also comments about falling standards of English language teaching (and consequently competence) in schools countrywide (Abu Bakr 1975:16). In the 1990s Arabic became the sole MoI in all northern and most southern government schools in Sudan. Resolution no. 27 concerning cultural diversity, approved at the 1989 National Dialogue Conference (Abu-Bakr & Abu-Manga 1997:7-8), recommended the use of the L1 in education, but this has not been implemented so far. Similarly, the 1997 law on language planning, which aimed to protect cultural and linguistic diversity, has had no practical impact whatsoever. During the 1990s the government established a Higher Council for Arabicisation. At universities Arabicisation units were created to conduct linguistic research, or to translate and to publish teaching material for tertiary education (Abu-Bakr & Abu-Manga 1997:8). This Arabicisation policy has given rise to feelings of support and hostility in equal measure. The Arabic activists argue that Arabic is the language of the people and that, given the low level of proficiency in English, only the use of Arabic at the universities offers an acceptable alternative. Another argument used in favour of the Arabicisation units is that they help students from the south to catch up (in Arabic language competence) with their northern counterparts. On the other hand, critics are of the opinion that the use of Arabic discriminates against those southerners who were educated through the medium of English. They see this as just another way of disadvantaging the people of the south. In addition, academics complain that there are insufficient funds for the purchase of books or other teaching material in Arabic or for translating works into Arabic. The peace agreement of 2004 between the Sudanese government and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and its political wing the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) states that ‘Arabic and English are official languages, and all the indigenous languages are national languages which shall be respected, developed and promoted’ (Sudan Tribune 2004:28). The development and promotion of the L1s shall be conducted by : a) enactment of a founding law and


b) establishment of a council for the development and promotion of L1s. For the first time since Independence, English is identified here as an official language. Furthermore, for the first time ever, the L1s are recognised as ‘national languages’. If implemented, this peace agreement opens the way for a profound change of language policy in Sudan in future. A sociolinguistic survey, involving more than 1,400 respondents, was conducted in 2002 in Nyala (among speakers of Darfurian languages) and in 2003 in Khartoum (among speakers of southern Sudanese languages).33 The survey’s findings showed that the respondents claimed to have positive attitudes towards all three languages (Arabic, English and their original L1) : a. The L1 is the symbol of ethnic identity and is used for intra-ethnic communication; b. Arabic is the national language and is used for communication between Sudanese who do not share the same L1, c. English is important as an international language; it facilitates contact with foreigners. Respondents claimed to speak Arabic mainly for instrumental and pragmatic reasons, such as in formal domains, at the workplace, in education, and so on. The interviewees identified Arabic as the national language and as a useful and important language. All respondents also claimed that they liked to maintain their L1 for integrative or ideological/symbolic reasons as part of their heritage and as a cultural symbol. In the long run, pragmatic factors such as economic benefits and education are probably more decisive than ideological reasons for language maintenance or shift. As so many L1 speakers have migrated to Arabic dominated areas, quite a number of these L1s are endangered, since they are being used less and less. As a consequence, the linguistic diversity of Sudan is threatened. Furthermore, the move towards an increasing (sometimes enforced) use of Arabic in Sudan among speakers of other L1s is supported by the official language policy. It is obvious that the government is promoting Arabic as a means for national integration and social cohesion in this culturally and linguistically diverse country. The main achievement of the Sudanese language policy is the country-wide use of Arabic. The Sudanese government, supported by various socio-economic developments, has succeeded in making Arabic the national language, in so far as it is the most widely used language in which Sudanese people are really highly competent in all domains. Of particular importance is the use of Arabic as the language of higher education; Sudan is the only country in the Arab world to adopt such a policy, apart from Syria. However, a major disadvantage of the Sudanese language policy is the failure to allocate any meaningful roles to the L1s. The L1s in northern Sudan, in particular, have been totally neglected. Many Sudanese citizens have no access to L1 medium education. Moreover, the decline in English language competence is another negative effect of the current language policy.34


The debate on language issues in Sudan has been highly politicised and very sensitive since colonial times. Language policy was part of the ideological struggle between, on the one hand, the British colonialists who advocated English and a (limited) use of the L1s, and, on the other hand, the Sudanese nationalists who advocated Arabic as a unifying language for the new nation. After 1956, this legacy contributed to perceptions that the promotion of the L1s and English had connotations of perpetuating British ‘divide-and-rule’ tactics. In the same way, the widespread use of Arabic is seen by some as an imposition of northern Sudanese cultural and religious values and concepts on other groups of the population. This unfortunate polarisation has severely hampered the search for a solution to the language problems in Sudan. We can but hope that the new peace agreement will contribute to finding a just and practicable way forward.

Conclusion

Initially, four questions were asked. These pertained to language and development with reference to Namibia, but were also of wider importance. From the perspective of Namibia and the two other African countries examined here, these questions can be partly answered within the limited scope of this chapter as follows. Non-African languages (English and French) play a particular role in Namibia and Cameroon. These languages are de jure identified as the media of formal communication especially in official domains that are directly controlled by the State. Whenever development issues are addressed by official institutions, English or French is used. As such, only a small percentage of the population (those who have had a chance to learn the official language or languages) can be reached and directly involved. The vast majority - particularly in the countryside - are excluded from verbal or written participation in any development process or dialogue for lack of proficiency in the official language. This is regrettable, since development is especially urgently required in rural areas. The situation in Sudan is quite different. The selection of Arabic as the national and official language means that large parts of the Sudanese population can be addressed directly and can participate in a dialogue with government (provided such a dialogue takes place). In contrast, the L1s in all three countries share a similar low status. Although these languages are spoken by the vast majority of the population in Namibia and Cameroon and by large parts of the rural population in Sudan they are legally excluded from official domains. Only in some formal domains, such as the lower primary phase of education, religion and the media, do these L1s have any public function. In effect, those sectors of the population who are most urgently in need of socio-economic advancement are reduced to silent objects of development who have no say regarding their future. A more flexible official approach is needed which takes into consideration the rich linguistic heritage of these three countries (and other nations in Africa). Such an approach would have an immensely positive effect on national development, since it


would enable all members of the population, without discrimination, to participate in development processes. Notes 1 This chapter is a completely revised version of a paper which was read at the 7th International Language and Development Conference, Addis Ababa, 26-28 October 2005. Karsten Legère is the author of the introductory section and the Namibian case study, Tove Rosendal deals with Cameroon, and Hélène Fatima Idris has written the Sudan section. 2 For this and other linguistic terms see Brann (1994). 3 Quotations are from Amupadhi (2003:5). 4 For this term and its definition supplemented by short examples see Legère (1996:71-72) or Legère (2002:17). 5 Article 3(1) states ‘The official language of Namibia shall be English’ (Republic of Namibia 1998:3). 6 For example, for the second-tier government of Kavango (now the Kavango Region), Proclamation R.115 stipulated : ‘32. The Kwangali language shall be recognised as an official language of Kavango ... 33. (1) All Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Council shall be recorded, and all its order papers kept in Kwangali, English and Afrikaans ...’ (Republic of South Africa 1973). 7 So far national language protagonists have paid little attention to Article 3(3) which states : ‘Nothing contained in Sub-Article (1) hereof shall preclude legislation by Parliament which permits the use of a language other than English for legislative, administrative and judicial purposes in regions or areas where such other language or languages are spoken by a substantial component of the population’ (Republic of Namibia 1998:3). 8 Republic of Namibia (1994). 9 Prior to 1990 English was apologetically called the ‘language of liberation’ whilst Afrikaans was decried as the ‘language of oppression’. This dichotomy ignored the fact that Afrikaans was the mother tongue not only of the South African oppressors and their stooges, but also of the coloured people who were certainly not pillars of the Apartheid system in the country. 10 This is an updated and expanded version of a table published in Legère (1996). 11 These figures are from 2001 (Republic of Namibia 2002), the most recent education statistics available. 12 As suggested by UNESCO (2003). 13 Discussed in Legère (2001). 14 This was the Namibian partners’ opinion expressed throughout the period (from 1994 to 2000) when the author of this section was responsible for an African languages project in Namibia on behalf of the German Foundation for International Development (DSE, now Inwent) in cooperation with the National Institute for Educational Development (NIED). 15 A panel discussant in the television programme ‘Talk of the Nation’ which inspired Philander’s article blamed foreign advisers who ‘… particularly overlooked the language factor that still has a profound bearing and influence on teachers, learners and parents’ (Philander 2005:4). It is particularly worrying that many secondary students do not understand the subject matter when it is taught in English. For this reason, most teaching in schools takes place in a mixture of languages, with a preponderance of whichever L1 children are familiar with (or Afrikaans), on the one hand, and a relatively small admixture of English, on the other hand.


16 See Wedin (2004) who describes a similar situation in Tanzania. For a definition of ‘safe talk’ see Chick 1996. 17 Observed during a language survey in the lower primary education system conducted in 1999/2000. For details see Legère, Trewby & Van Graan (2003). 18 This is an updated version of a table appearing in Legère (2001). 19 This phenomenon was vehemently criticised in a letter published in the Ambo/English journal Otweya (Braziel 2005). 20 National language programmes start after 07:00 and continue with interruptions until 21:00. 21 Described by Cluver (1993) as Namibians being linguistic foreigners in their own country. 22 The term Niger-Kordofanian is the term widely used in linguistic references and other sources in Cameroon referring to the phylum which today is often labelled Niger-Congo. 23 The autonym fulfulde was chosen here referring to the language that is occasionally called fulani or fula in English publications (the latter actually being ethnonyms). 24 Source: Molina (2001), based on Dieu & Renaud (1983). Essono (2001) writes that Gomálá, Fe´fe´ and Mungaka are also LWCs in the Western part of the country. 25 The country currently has ten administrative regions (provinces). English is the official language in two provinces (North West and South West provinces), and the remaining eight are ‘Francophone’. 26 For the historical background see Chumbow (1980). 27 République du Cameroun (1996:Part 1, Article 1(3)). Note that L1s are referred to as ‘national languages’. 28 Source : NationMaster (www.nationmaster.com/country/cm-cameroon/edu-education), retrieved 27 October 2006 29 African languages are clearly being ignored in this part of the text. If the Cameroonian languages had been kept in mind, then the terms ‘multiculturalism’ or ‘triculturalism’ would have been used. 30 Source: Tadadjeu (1995) 31 According to a speech given by Maurice Tadadjeu on the international UNESCO Mother Tongue Day in Yaoundé, 21 February 2004. 32 Source: ANACLAC/NACALCO (2001) 33 The survey was conducted by the author of this section in order to collect field survey data for her doctoral dissertation about the sociolinguistic situation in Sudan. 34 Although students have to study English for four years at university and pass an English language examination in order to graduate.

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Namibian Language Policy in Education : Lower Primary Grades and Pre-service

Teacher Education. Windhoek : NERA. Miller, C., and Al-Amin Abu-Manga. 1992. Language Change and National Integration : Rural Migrants in Khartoum. Khartoum : Khartoum University Press. Molina, M. 2001. Plurilingual competence : A concrete example : Cameroon. Noves SL : Sociolingüística internacional. Winter 2001. Retrieved from http://64.233.183.104/search?q=cache:99C-IgL8RbkJ:www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm01hivern/internacional/a_molina1_5.htm+Plurilingual+competence+molina+2001+noves+sl&hl=sv&gl=se&ct=clnk&cd=1 . Mutorwa, J. 2001. Opening speech. In R.Trewby and S.Fitchat (eds), Language and Development in Southern Africa, 7-9. Windhoek : Gamsberg Macmillan. Philander, F. 2005. Experts slam education system. New Era, 13 January, p 4. Republic of Namibia. 1998. The Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. Windhoek : Legal Assistance Centre. (First edition 1990.) Republic of Namibia. 1994. 1991 Population and Housing Census : Report B :

Statistical Tables, Volume I. Windhoek : National Planning Commission, Central Statistical Office. Republic of Namibia. 2002. EMIS Education Statistics 2001. Windhoek : Ministry of Basic Education, Sports and Culture.


Republic of Namibia. 2003. 2001 Population and Housing Census. Retrieved from http://www.npc.gov.na/census/. Republic of South Africa. 1973. Kavango : Declaration of self-governing area and constitution of Legislative Council. (Proclamations of the State President of the Republic of South Africa, No.R.115, 1973.) Government Gazette 95, 3880, 4 May 1973. Republic of Sudan. 1998. The Constitution of the Republic of Sudan, 1 July 1998. Retrieved from http://www.sudan.net/government/constitution/english.html. République du Cameroun. 1996. Loi No 96-06 : La Constitution de la République du Cameroun. (Nouvelle Edition Février 1996.) Online version retrieved from : Site official des Services du Premier Ministre, Le Portail du Gouvernement http://www.spm.gov.cm/showtexte.php?lang=fr&text=text. République du Cameroun. 1998. Loi No 98/004 : Education au Cameroun. Cameroon Tribune no. 2869 of 17 April 1998. Sudan Tribune. 2004. Protocol between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Power Sharing (‘Naivasha Protocol’). Sudan Tribune, Wednesday 26 May 2004. Retrieved from http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/doc/20040527_power_sharing_protocol_.doc . Tadadjeu, M. 1995. National Language Education Programme in Cameroon. Yaoundé : PROPELCA/Department of African Languages and Linguistics, University of Yaoundé I. UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation). 2003. Education in a Multilingual World. (UNESCO Education Position Paper.) Paris : UNESCO. Wedin, Å. 2004. Literacy Practices in and out of School in Karagwe. Stockholm : Centre for Research on Bilingualism.

Clegg Bilingual education in Africa 40

Chapter 4

Moving towards bilingual education in Africa

John Clegg

Introduction

I want to propose that in sub-Saharan Africa we need to stop teaching through

European languages alone and introduce bilingual education, that is, learning through

two languages throughout schooling.

I’m going to generalise, but there is academic evidence for most of what I will claim.

I’ll refer to English, but what I say applies to any European language used as a

medium of instruction (MoI) in Africa. I’ll use L1 as a shorthand for an African

language in which the learner feels comfortable and I’ll use L2 as a shorthand for

English or any other European language used as a MoI.

This chapter makes points which are similar to those which I made in a paper

presented to the Sixth Language in Development conference in Tashkent in 2003

(Clegg 2005). However, it adds to the Tashkent paper in two respects. Firstly it

points out that education programmes which function in the learners’ L2 tend to

succeed only under certain circumstances, most of which are not given in sub-Saharan

Africa (see the section ‘What factors in school achievement can be linked to the

language of learning?’ below). Secondly, it draws attention to doubts about the value

of ‘early-exit’ L1-medium education; that is to say, the short-term initial experience of

learning in L1 which learners conventionally get in many African countries (see the

section ‘Does L1-medium education in the early years significantly raise school

achievement?’ below). This phase of schooling, which we often think of as crucially

valuable to the African learner, now seems not to be beneficial enough to offset the

drawbacks of education in a European language.

These are the questions I want to discuss :

• Can African learners get a satisfactory education in current L2-medium

classrooms?

• What factors in school achievement can be linked to the language of learning?

• Do African classrooms fulfil the conditions which education in L2 requires?

• How should teachers teach subjects to learners who are not competent in the L2?

• Can education in L2 damage communities?

• Does L1-medium education in the early years significantly raise school

achievement?

• What are the pros and cons of bilingual education?

• Do stakeholders in Africa know enough about the language of learning?

• What action should we take now to introduce bilingual education?


Can African learners get a satisfactory education in current L2-medium

classrooms?

You can’t learn if you don’t understand lessons and you can’t teach if you’re not

confident enough in the language of learning. Currently, in African classrooms :

• learners often have low L2 ability, especially in the language of learning (Brock-

Utne & Alidou 2006; Heugh 1995, 1999, 2001, 2006)

• teachers are often not confident in the L2 (Mwinsheikhe 2002)

• learners often do little talking, reading and writing in the L2 (Alidou & Brock-

Utne 2006).

There is evidence that levels of L2 ability for learning as well as for teaching are often

too low to ensure that learners get an adequate education (Alidou & Brock-Utne

2006). Language is at the heart of school learning. If you can’t use it for the purpose

of learning, it becomes a barrier to, rather than a channel for education.

In addition, what learners are asked to do with language in many African classrooms

is often not cognitively useful. For example :

• classroom discourse is often low in meaning; learners do a lot of repetition and

memorisation (Alidou & Brock-Utne 2006)

• lessons are often cognitively unchallenging (Brock-Utne & Alidou 2006;

Hornberger & Chick 2001; UNESCO 2005).

Thus learners are often engaging in activities of doubtful pedagogical benefit in a

language which they do not know well enough.

What factors in school achievement can be linked to the language of learning?

In Africa :

• the numbers of children out of school are high (Bamgbose 2000)

• matriculation rates are low (UNESCO 2005)

• literacy rates are low (Bamgbose 2000; Williams 1996)

• dropout rates are high (Bamgbose 2000)

• levels of education at university entrance are low (Rollnick & Manyatsi 1997).

Evidence links these factors to education in a European language (Brock-Utne 2002;

Harlech-Jones 2001; Williams & Cooke 2002). They do have other obvious causes

(e.g. poverty, resourcing, etc) but unfortunately – because authorities do not, by and

large, discuss the language medium question (Dutcher 2001) – we tend to overlook

the linguistic causes.

Do African classrooms fulfil the conditions which education in L2 requires?

When we look at L2-medium education across the world, there is evidence that it

flourishes under certain conditions. L2-medium education helps :

• if you come from an educated background (Brock-Utne 2002; Tollefson 1991).

Many African learners don’t.

• if you have good foundations in early L1 literacy (Cummins 2000; Thomas &

Collier 2002). Many African learners, although they may learn through L1 in the


early years, may not have L1 foundations which are secure enough to enable them

to learn successfully through L2 (Heugh 2006).

• if you have adequate exposure to the L2 (Cummins & Swain 1986). Many

African learners – especially in rural, but also in urban areas – have low exposure

(Trappes-Lomax 1990).

• if you already have a good level of L2 ability when you switch to learning subjects

in L2. For many African learners the gap at this switch of medium - between their

L2 language ability and the language they need to learn subjects - is very large and

can increase (Macdonald 1990).

• if English language teachers teach the language you need to learn subjects

(Cummins 2000). Most English teachers – in Africa or elsewhere – don’t; they

tend to teach grammar and general-purpose English.

• if subject teachers teach subjects using a specialist language-supportive pedagogy

(Clegg 2001) which makes subject concepts accessible to learners who are still

developing in the L2. (See also the section ‘How should teachers teach subjects to

learners who are not competent in the L2?’ below.) Subject-teachers in Africa –

as in other L2-medium contexts – normally don’t (Clegg 1996, 2001).

• if textbooks are designed to be used by learners still developing in the L2; that

means that they use techniques to make them highly comprehensible, especially

visuals, readable texts and language supportive tasks (Peacock 1995). Often,

African textbooks are not designed in such a way.

• if teacher-education makes the above issues central to the training of teachers. It

normally doesn’t; much of teacher-education in Africa is not orientated to training

teachers to teach subjects in L2 (Alidou & Brock-Utne 2006; Heugh 2006).

• if resourcing is adequate. In Africa, often it isn’t; textbook supply, furniture, class

size etc are often poor.

These are crucial facts of life about education in a L2. However, for the most part,

education authorities and aid agencies in Africa do not address these issues (see the

section ‘Do stakeholders in Africa know enough about the language of learning?’

below). There is a remarkable absence of information or debate on these matters

(Dutcher 2001). Since L2-medium education in Africa, as it is currently practised,

does not fulfil most of these criteria for success, theoretical and practical experience

would predict that it will not work effectively and it is unsurprising that its results are

poor.

How should teachers teach subjects to learners who are not competent in the L2?

When teachers teach a subject in a L2, they need to use a pedagogy which is different

from the one they use when working in L1. This pedagogy is designed to help

learners understand the subject when their L2 ability is still developing (i.e.

sometimes zero, often middling) and to use some L2 to express themselves on the

subject. This is a specialist pedagogy (Clegg 2001) which needs to be specifically

taught in teacher-education. It requires teachers to :

• talk in a super-comprehensible way (using, for example, signals of organisation,

summary, example, explanation, repetition, code-switching into L1, etc)

• use a lot of visuals

• use tasks which explicitly support language development (Burkett et al. 2001)

• develop reading and writing abilities within the subject in the L2


• get learners to talk in groups, often in their L1

• teach learners to use the language of learning

• teach learners strategies for learning in a L2.

By and large, subject teachers in African teacher-education – as is the case in many

other L2-medium education contexts across the world – are not trained to use this

pedagogy (Clegg 1996).

Can education in L2 damage communities?

If we teach in L2, we run several risks. There is a danger that :

• we limit school achievement; there is a low ceiling on what learners can learn in a

language in which they are not competent.

• we delay school achievement; learners working in L2 take several years to

develop competence in the language of learning. For example, Cummins (2000)

suggests that seven years are needed to develop this competence in North

America..

• we reinforce unequal access to the curriculum; children who speak L2 better can

get an education; those who speak it less well are held back.

• we reinforce power relations in society (Roy-Campbell 2001); middle class

children thrive in education in L2, but children from families with low socio-

economic status don’t.

• we amplify the effects of poverty; children from poor families experience

education in L2 as a greater barrier than children from rich families (Dutcher

2001).

• we break the bond between school and community; parents cannot easily involve

themselves in their children’s education if it is conducted in a language they may

not speak well (Dutcher 2001).

• we downgrade the child’s language and culture (Dutcher 2001); a language which

is not used for education is an undervalued language.

• we inhibit school improvement initiatives; initiatives have less impact if language

places a fundamental brake on school achievement.

• we commit resources where they cannot do much good; a lot of money spent on

school improvement is wasted if there is a fundamental, unrecognised linguistic

limit on quality.

• we distort data on educational performance. If we assess children in a second

language it may not tell us what they know; furthermore, it may not tell us what

they might know if they had been educated in their L1.

• we reduce the effectiveness of teacher-education; whatever teacher-educators train

teachers to do, it will not be effective if learners don’t understand lessons.

• we contribute to limiting the economic performance of a country (Alexander

2001a, 2001b); low school achievement is serious for the economy.

All these risks are real in current L2-medium education in Africa.


Does L1-medium education in the early years significantly raise school

achievement?

In most countries in sub-Saharan Africa, children learn through their L1 in the early

years and then (usually after three or four years) they switch medium to a European

language. It is widely considered that this has the following advantages :

• It provides a connection to their community and culture (Brock-Utne & Alidou

2006).

• It provides cognitive and literacy foundations for education as a whole.

• It is an essential foundation for education in a L2 (Thomas & Collier 2002) (but

especially for children with low socio-economic status (SES), for whom it has an

important compensatory value).

• It is an essential foundation for second language learning.

However, early years education in L1, without continuing L1-medium education in

cognitively demanding subjects, is unlikely to raise school achievement overall.

Indeed ‘early-exit’ L1-medium education (e.g. after four years) is now considered by

many specialists to be insufficiently effective in terms of academic achievement

compared to late-exit models or continuous bilingual education (Dutcher & Tucker

1996; Ramirez et al 1991). Some commentators believe that this is particularly true of

African education (Heugh 2006), where six years of L1-medium education are

thought to be the minimum needed for L2-medium education to be effective.

Two concepts are useful here. One is CALP (Cognitive Academic Language

Proficiency; see Cummins 2000). This is a contested term, but it serves to point up

the fact that school makes particular language demands on learners : they need to use

a special variety of language for learning purposes. This includes reading school

texts, planning and writing academic texts, listening to teachers and taking notes,

conducting effective groupwork, using charts and graphs, writing examination

responses, etc.

The second useful concept is ‘transfer’. CALP can transfer from one language to

another (Cummins 1984) : key elements of these skills are not specific to languages.

But this happens only under certain conditions. Firstly, the skills must be well enough

taught in the L1. Secondly, this teaching must continue for a long enough time for L1

CALP to establish firm foundations (Rubagumya 2003).

In addition, Cummins (2000) claims that effective bilingual education requires

teachers to give extra emphasis to CALP in both L1-medium and L2-medium parts of

a bilingual education. In other words, learners need to be encouraged to develop

CALP in L2. In L2-medium learning, learners cannot do without being shown

explicitly how to do use learning skills in the L2. This means that English language

teaching – throughout schooling, but especially in the early years before the switch of

medium – needs to focus on this variety of language. Very often, early years L2

lessons in African classrooms are not intended to do this; instead, they are intended to

teach general-purpose, rather than academic-purpose English.

So the current model of early-onset L2-medium education may not be effective. It

may not be long enough and it may not focus sufficiently on academic learning skills

either in L1 or L2.


What are the pros and cons of bilingual education?

If we think of what bilingual education in Africa might look like, ideally, we would

most likely envisage :

• early years education in L1

• continuing education with the curriculum divided between two languages.

The benefits which are commonly claimed for bilingual education are that it can :

• increase school achievement generally by enabling learners to learn partly in L1

(Alidou & Brock-Utne 2006)

• increase learners’ ability to develop CALP skills in both L1 and L2

• increase English-medium achievement; learning skills gained in L1 can transfer

better to English-medium education in a bilingual education system than they can

in the current model of early-years L1-medium learning followed by L2-medium

education (partly because these learning skills have longer to develop in L1 and

partly because learners develop them concurrently in both L1 and L2)

• increase the status of African languages (Wolff 2006)

• maintain children’s language and culture (Dutcher 2001)

• maintain a link with the community (Dutcher 2001.

On the other hand, the problems which are often quoted in relation to bilingual

education in Africa include the following :

• Publishing textbooks will be expensive

• African languages cannot express school concepts

• Parents may not accept it.

There is undoubtedly a cost to bilingual school publishing (Diallo 2006), but it is

lower than normally expected and certainly lower than the overall cost to the economy

of ineffective L2-medium education (Heugh 2006; Heugh & Siegrühn 1995).

Bilingual publishing is also practically less difficult than is often imagined. In fact,

early years multilingual publishing is practised in contexts in which many languages

are used (e.g. Papua New Guinea; see Siegel 1997).

African languages do indeed need to be developed in order to express academic

concepts, but the processes by which such language development is achieved are

already well-known (Heugh & Siegrühn 1995; Mwansoko 1990; Wolff 2006). It is

mainly political will which is required to put them into practice.

It is also true that many parents may be wary of education in two languages (Wolff

2006). They may feel that bilingual education marginalises English. In fact – as

outlined above – the opposite is the case. Current L2-medium education limits school

English language use whilst bilingual education promotes it. But this is a paradox; it

is not easily understood by government and may be even less accepted by parents.

What is needed is a campaign of public information to educate parents about the value

of bilingual education. In addition, it is important to pilot bilingual education (see the

section ‘What action should we take now to introduce bilingual education?’ below) so

that parents are able to appreciate its value.


Do stakeholders in Africa know enough about the language of learning?

Stakeholders in African education – especially governments and educational

development agencies – need to be informed about the pros and cons of the choice of

medium of instruction.

They need to know in particular about :

• the value of bilingual education (see the section ‘What are the pros and cons of

bilingual education?’ above)

• the conditions of success for education in L2 (see the section ‘Do African

classrooms fulfil the conditions which education in L2 requires?’ above)

• the relation between English-medium education and SES (again, see the section

‘Do African classrooms fulfil the conditions which education in L2 requires?’)

• the potential damage to communities of education in L2 (see the section ‘Can

education in L2 damage communities?’ above)

• an effective pedagogy in L2-medium education (see the section ‘How should

teachers teach subjects to learners who are not competent in the L2?’ above)

• the importance of early years education in L1 (see the section ‘Does L1-medium

education in the early years significantly raise school achievement’ above)

• the ineffectiveness of a short period of early years education in L1 (again, see the

section ‘Does L1-medium education in the early years significantly raise school

achievement’).

In Africa (and indeed elsewhere) governments and other key institutions in the

education service tend to be ill-informed about the role of language in learning and

about the choice of language medium (Dutcher 2001; Wolff 2006). This lack of

knowledge is especially marked :

• amongst governments (Dutcher 2001)

• in teacher education (Heugh 2006)

• amongst parents (Wolff 2006).

Recently, knowledge of these matters has been on the increase:

• amongst development agencies such as UNESCO (see UNESCO 2005, 2006)

• in higher education in Africa – for example at the University of Cape Town (e.g.

Beckett 2001)

• amongst relevant NGOs: The Association for the Development of Education in

Africa, for example, has contributed powerfully (e.g. Alidou et al 2006)

However, the lack of knowledge about language of learning amongst governments,

parents and teacher educators is still a major barrier to increasing school achievement

in Africa.

What action should we take now to introduce bilingual education?

We need to plan now for bilingual education in the longer term. This means :

• starting to plan African languages so that they are available as media of school

learning

• informing the public about the importance of language choice in education

• educating teachers about language choice in education, about the value of

bilingual education and about how to teach subjects in L2


• designing bilingual curricula

• expanding textbook publishing in L1 and establishing in L2-medium publishing

the principle of comprehensibility to L2 users.

We need also to show that bilingual education can work. This means starting now to

pilot small-scale bilingual education projects (Dutcher 2001). A pilot would involve :

• choosing two or three sample schools

• establishing a consensus within those schools of the nature and intended value of

the pilot

• supporting the teachers in those schools in the devising of a bilingual curriculum,

the development of L1-medium materials, the assessment of knowledge in two

languages, and so on

• monitoring the project over time.

Education in European languages is not working in Africa and we need to recognise

it. It is no longer legitimate to avoid the debate on the language of learning. Bilingual

education can raise school achievement and we need to move urgently towards it now.

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Teshome Learning with mother tongue

51

Chapter 5

The impact of learning with the mother tongue on academic

achievement : A case study of Grade 8 students in Ethiopia

Teshome Nekatibeb

Background

Learning with mother tongues other than Amharic is a relatively new phenomenon in

Ethiopia. It dates back to the early 1990s when the Transitional Government of

Ethiopia (TGE) issued an interim education and language policy. The TGE

administered the country on the basis of a transitional charter which recognised the

rights of peoples, nations and nationalities to self-determination, their rights to defend

and develop their culture and history as well as nurture their languages. In 1992, the

TGE introduced new measures concerning primary education in ethno-national

languages. Among the languages, the policy stipulated that the Afan Oromo,

Walayita, Sidama and Tigrinya languages would be used as media of instruction from

the 1991-1992 school year. In addition, Arabic was recommended for use in the

region of Benishangul.

In 1994, the TGE issued the Ethiopian Education and Training Policy (ETP). This

policy was based on the principle that all nations and nationalities have the right to be

educated in their own language and to preserve their culture. The policy also

recognises the pedagogical advantage for the child if education is given in the mother

tongue. The ETP again confirmed that several languages with the largest numbers of

speakers would be used directly as media of instruction in primary education whilst

minority languages would be gradually introduced into the school system. Until such

a stage is reached, minority groups are using the language of their choice from among

those selected on the basis of national and countryside distribution. According to this

policy, Amharic was to be taught as the language of countrywide communication

while English was designated as the medium of instruction for secondary and higher

education. Students were expected to choose and learn at least one ‘nationality’

language and one foreign language for cultural and international relations.

A constitution which resulted in the replacement of the Transitional Government of

Ethiopia by a Federal Government was ratified later in 1994. This constitution states,

in Article 5, that Amharic shall be the official language of the Federal Government.

In Articles 2 and 3, it also states that all Ethiopian languages shall enjoy equal state

recognition, and that each member state of the Federation shall determine its own

respective official language or languages. Apart from these broad constitutional

provisions, the new constitution gives no direction with reference to the language of

education. By default, thus, the ETP was accepted as the major guide to policy in

education and the use of languages in education.

The use of Amharic as the language of instruction actually goes as far back as

Proclamation 149 of 1955, Article 125 of the revised imperial constitution of

Ethiopia. According to Hameso (1997), this proclamation declared Amharic to be the

only official language of the whole country, although in fact there are as many as 84


52

languages in the nation (Gordon 2005). The current approach differs from the 1955

proclamation in that it recognises other Ethiopian languages as media of instruction.

So far, seventeen languages are being used as media of instruction in primary schools

(Haile Selassie 2005) and the possible use of minority languages is being debated in

many other regions. Despite these developments, however, very little is known as to

the implementation and effectiveness of learning with the mother tongue.

Scope of this study

The Ethiopian Second National Learning Assessment (ESNLA), conducted in 2003-

2004, has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of learning with the

mother tongue on academic success at the two terminal points of primary education.

The first of these points is Grade 4, the last year of the first cycle of primary

education, and the second is Grade 8, at the end of the second cycle. The ESNLA was

funded by USAID and jointly carried out by the National Organisation for

Examinations (NOE) and the Academy for Educational Development/Basic Education

Strategic Objective II Project (AED/BESO II). Its primary aim was to provide

information about students’ learning attainment and the factors that determine those

attainments in Ethiopian primary education. Learning achievement was measured by

standardised tests, and these tests were administered in those regions which were

using either the mother tongue or the non-mother tongue (English) as medium of

instruction in upper primary education.

The purpose of the study reported here is to use data from the ESNLA to analyse the

impact of learning with the mother tongue on the academic achievement of Grade 8

pupils in Ethiopia. It compares the learning attainments of pupils who studied

Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics through the medium of their mother

tongues with those who studied the same subjects through the medium of a language

which was not their mother tongue. A further purpose of the study is to examine the

extent to which learning in the mother tongue enhances the learning of English.

Estimations indicate that there are between three and nine thousand living languages

in the world (Mackey 1984). The number of sovereign nations is approximately two

hundred. It is clear, therefore, that the world as a whole and most individual nation

states are multilingual. Although, as observed earlier, more than 80 languages are

spoken in Ethiopia, this study focuses on just four of them: Amharic, Afan Oromo,

Tigrinya and Somali. The main reason for selecting these four languages is that they

are spoken by an absolute majority of the population.

Why is it necessary to examine these issues? An argument which is sometimes used

for not using multiple languages in education in Ethiopia is that to promote several

languages would hinder national unity. As noted above, there is also a lack of

information concerning the effectiveness of learning with the mother tongue in

enhancing student academic achievement. This study is significant, then, because it

provides such information to parents and policy makers. In turn, this will assist

stakeholders to make appropriate decisions about students’ learning through the

medium of the mother tongue in primary education.


53

The mother tongue and mother-tongue education

Following Szepe (1984) and Pattanayak (2003), the term ‘mother tongue’ is used here

to refer to the first language that a child acquires. According to Hoius (1976), in

practice there are five different patterns of mother tongue use in education :

• the medium of instruction at all levels of education

• used up to a certain level of schooling and then replaced by another language

• used in the teaching of certain subjects while a non-mother tongue is used for

other subjects

• taught as a subject but not used as a medium of instruction

• completely excluded from the education system.

In Sub-Saharan Africa, according to Ouane (2003), there are between 1,250 and 2,100

languages. However, school children in this region very rarely have chances to

receive their education in the mother tongue. Kuper (2003) reports that in 22 out of

39 African countries primary education still uses one of the colonial languages. Only

three countries – Ethiopia, Eritrea and Tanzania - employ the mother tongue for the

whole duration of primary education.

A similar situation is found in Latin America, where Spanish is used almost

everywhere as the language of education, even in those countries where there is quite

a large Indian population. In Peru, for example, Quechua and Aymara have obtained

the status of co-official languages alongside Spanish, but their use is subject to quite

specific restrictions (Corvalán 1984).

In contrast, in many developed countries, the use of different languages as media of

instruction is widely accepted. In the United Sates, for example, Rotberg (1984)

records that the first bilingual education act which urged that the native tongue should

be used until children were proficient in English was enacted in 1968. In Spain,

although Spanish is the official language of the state, a constitution which encouraged

the use of diverse languages for the purpose of instruction was issued in 1978 (Siguan

1984). Switzerland has for many years had trilingualism, with French, German and

Italian as official languages.

There are several different arguments for providing primary education in the mother

tongue. These are summarised by Kuper (2003) in the following categories :

• pedagogical appropriateness

• cost effectiveness

• children’s right to be taught in their own language

• development of self-identity

• the contribution of learning in the mother tongue to improved relations between

political leaders and the population at large.

Laforge (1987) offers a more comprehensive summary of the arguments in favour of

using the mother tongue in education. These are summarised in Table 1.


54

Table 1 : Arguments in favour of mother tongue education (based on Laforge 1987)

Perspective Rationale

Educational

Use of mother tongue guarantees child’s emotional and psychomotor

development. It sets free child’s expressive potential. It offers opportunity for

child to verbalise all his/her experience.

Teaching/didactic

Use of mother tongue enables classroom effort to be concentrated on learning of

content. Use of foreign language requires effort to be expended first on learning

medium of instruction and only then on learning content.

Psychological

Whatever is first learned through medium of mother tongue must be followed up

in same language in order to avoid interference and confusion due to too sudden a

break between two different forms of expression.

Social and family

Use of mother tongue at school enables family and community to continue

educational effort already undertaken at home. They can play a part in child’s

education by ensuring traditional values are taken into account at school.

Cultural Mother tongue is foundation of personality of the individual and the nation.

Denying mother tongue is to deny oneself.

Economic

Mother tongue brings education within reach of more children by reducing

numbers a) who repeat classes (which is expensive), and b) who fail at school

because of having to learn non-mother tongue with difficulty at an early age.

There is ample evidence from both developed and developing countries that learning

with the mother tongue is effective. For instance, Hutchison (1998) reviewed various

studies from the United States on the achievement of children in bilingual and

multilingual conditions. The general conclusions were that learning with the mother

tongue is effective for guaranteeing optimal transmission of social and cultural values,

enhancing second language acquisition, and developing higher academic proficiency,

higher decontextualised knowledge and higher problem solving capacity.

Kuper (2003) describes research on the effects of bilingual education in Peru and

Ecuador. In Ecuador, he reports that, in all subjects and practically all classes,

bilingual project schools achieved better average results than schools outside the

project where the mother tongue was not in use. Similar results were obtained in

bilingual schools in Peru.

In Madagascar, Komarek (1997) shows that a year after the introduction of textbooks

and teaching manuals for elementary reading and writing classes in the mother

tongue, Malagasy, in twenty experimental schools, first year pupils achieved a 15%

lead over pupils in twenty non-project schools. Nigeria has also experimented with

the use of the mother tongue in primary education. According to Bamgbose (1984),

pupils who studied through the medium of Yoruba in a six year primary education

project performed well in comparison with pupils in control schools.

Of course, it has to be acknowledged that various factors both external and internal to

schools have influences on student achievement in addition to the language of

instruction. Among the external factors, the importance of student home background


55

and personal and community characteristics is widely acknowledged. With reference

to student home background, parental socio-economic status (SES), family

configuration and parental support are known to correlate with student achievement

(see Chen 1996).

Student personal characteristics including gender (Parelius & Parelius 1987),

television viewing (Comstock 1994), leisure or voluntary reading, and the amount of

time spent on homework are associated with student achievement (Chen 1996).

Community factors that are related to student achievement include geographical

location (urban, suburban, rural), community resources, parental and community

involvement in schools and community values. In developing countries, demand for

child labour and the opportunity costs of attending school also make a significant

impact on academic achievement (Stockard & Mayberry 1992; Chen 1996).

Internal school factors also impact on academic achievement. Stockard and Mayberry

(1992) discuss these factors under two generic divisions: school and classroom

environment and school resources. Under the heading of environment come school

climate, academic expectations and excellence, school leadership, orderliness and

school coherence, teacher and student morale, and effective teaching. School

resources comprise school facilities and per-pupil expenditures, teacher qualifications,

classroom size, and school size. Fuller (1986) analyses these factors under the generic

concept of school quality. This construct comprises material inputs, teacher quality,

teaching practices and classroom organisation, school management and structure.

Methodology

This study is a comparative survey with cross sectional perspectives. It is a survey

because it is a nationwide assessment based on studying samples of all Grade 8

students in Ethiopia. It is comparative because it relates the academic achievements

of a sample of Grade 8 students who were exposed to different treatments as far as the

language of instruction is concerned (mother tongue and non-mother tongue). This

study is cross sectional since it captures contemporary events related to the influence

of studying through the mother tongue on student academic achievement. The fact

that the study focuses on analysing student achievement in Grade 8 makes it also a

case study. After indicating the existence of different definitions of case studies,

Merriam (1998) notes that a case is a single entity, a unit around which there are

boundaries. In this sense, she argues that a case could be a student, a teacher, a

principal, a programme, a group such as a class, a school, a community, and so on.

Patton (1987) also supports this approach when he says that a case can be a person, an

event, a programme, a time period and so on.

Since this study is a part of the Ethiopian Second National Learning Assessment, the

overall planning activities that led to its realisation were essentially derived from that

large scale assessment. The first step was the creation of an institutional structure to

lead the whole project. The second step involved research planning, development and

field testing of the Second National Learning Assessment materials and instruments.

The third stage involved field work, data analysis and interpretation, and reporting.


56

The main instruments used for measuring student academic achievement were

achievement tests of English, Mathematics, Physics, Biology and Chemistry. Student,

teacher and head teacher questionnaires were also designed and administered but are

not discussed here. The number of sample schools in each region was determined

based on the relative proportion of its school population, with a minimum of 25

schools per region. Within regions, schools were selected at random.

In this way a sample of 407 schools was originally selected from a national total of

12,471. However, the actual number of schools from which data were collected in the

field was 213 for Grade 8. Two main reasons contributed to this situation. First, all

schools in Ethiopia are not complete primary schools : some have only Grades 1-4

while others have Grades 1-8. Second, data collection had to be abandoned in one of

the regions (Gambella) for security reasons.

It was decided to include 40 randomly selected students from each of the 213 schools.

Thus the total sample should have been 8,520 students. However, in fact the number

of participants was only 8,127; this was because some remote schools had fewer than

40 students in Grade 8. Moreover, incomplete data was obtained from some students,

not all participants sat every examination, and not every candidate responded to the

other research instruments such as questionnaires. Other factors such as illness, going

to the market and student reluctance to sit for examinations contributed to variations

in the number of candidates participating in examinations or responding to

questionnaires.

Three limitations of the study can be identified. Firstly, only ‘objective’ or ‘multiple

choice’ tests were used to measure students’ competence. However, tests of this type

do not measure higher order thinking or the skills which students are intended to

acquire in schools. Secondly, as noted above, it was found that not all of the

randomly identified schools could not be included in the study, because some schools

did not have any Grade 8 classes. Field visits for checking the sample schools should

have been conducted. Thirdly, as we have seen, the region of Gambella could not be

included in the study due to the security problems that prevailed in the area during the

period of data collection. Consequently, results cannot be generalised to this region.

Findings and analysis

From Table 2 it can be seen that students who studied Mathematics, Physics, Biology

and Chemistry through the mother tongue scored an average of 42.30% while students

who studied through a non-mother tongue scored 36.30%.

Table 2 : Composite student achievements in learning Mathematics, Physics, Biology and

Chemistry with mother and non-mother tongues

Medium N Mean

Score

Mother tongue 3256 42.30

Non-mother tongue 4534 36.23

Mean difference - 6.06


57

The mean difference is 6.06% in favour of the students using the mother tongue. A 2-

tailed t-test for comparison of means shows that the difference is highly significant at

the 0.05 level of significance (t=24.125, df =7788).

This finding is interesting given the prevailing situation in Ethiopia. In fact, the issue

of language in education has been a subject of discussion in many circles. Views vary

from totally barring the use of the mother tongue to working with a foreign language

or English. Reasons given include cost, inadequacy of indigenous languages to handle

modern developments, lack of a written form in the case of some languages, and a

shortage of teachers trained in local languages. Our analysis appears to indicate that in

fact the mother tongue policy is justified.

From Table 3 it can be seen that students who study through the mother tongue

achieve more in Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics than do students who

study through the medium of a non-mother tongue. Given that the situations in the

randomly selected schools are very similar, the only variable which distinguishes

between these groups is the medium of instruction.

Table 3 : Student achievement in learning

with mother tongue and non-mother tongue, by subject

Subject Medium N Mean

score

Mother tongue

Non-mother tongue

4594

3279

45.87

35.17 Biology


Mother tongue

Non-mother tongue

4606

3279

42.79

36.37 Chemistry


Mother tongue

Non-mother tongue

4614

3299

38.68

30.72 Physics


Mother tongue

Non-mother tongue

4611

3295

42.62

38.44 Mathematics


The results show that those who studied biology through the mother-tongue had an

advantage of nearly 11% over those who used a non-mother tongue. In mathematics

and physics - where one might expect language to play a lesser role - the students who

studied through the mother tongue still scored significantly more. Referring to

Hutchison (1998), Kuper (2003) and Komarek (1997), we noted earlier that learning

with the mother tongue develops higher cognitive ability. It also enhances the

development of academic proficiency and the acquisition of problem solving skills.

Findings from Table 3 in fact are consistent with these conclusions even with subjects

demanding more modest language skills.

Hutchison (1998) refers to studies in the United States which indicate that studying

through the mother tongue facilitates second language acquisition. Similarly, Kuper

(2003) reviews various researches which conclude that competence in the first and

second language are mutually beneficial, enhancing one another. In Ethiopia, English

is a compulsory subject at the primary level. In some regions, pupils are permitted to

study other subjects through the medium of English at the upper primary level

(Second Cycle Primary Education). In other words, some learn English as a subject;


58

whilst others learn it as a subject and at the same time use it as the medium of study.

A question for investigation, then, is whether learning a foreign language is facilitated

more when students use their mother tongue as the medium of learning or when they

are using the non-mother tongue.

Table 4 : Student achievement with the non-mother tongue as a subject,

and as a subject and medium of instruction

Status of English N Mean

Score

As subject 4615 42.79

As subject and as medium of instruction 3300 36.37


What Table 4 tells us is that students who studied English simply as a subject gained

more than those who studied it as a subject and were taught other subjects with

English as the medium of instruction. Thus we can conclude that studying through the

mother tongue facilitates learning a foreign language more than studying through the

medium of that foreign language while studying that language itself as a subject.

In addition to the language of instruction, other factors that correlate with successful

student learning were surveyed in the Ethiopian Second National Learning

Assessment. These factors or variables were grouped into six categories for

correlation and multiple regression analysis, the purpose being to examine the extent

to which each category explains variability in student achievement. Table 5

summarises the results.

Table 5 : Multiple regression analysis of variables and their relationship with composite student

academic achievement in Grade 8

Categories of variable R R-sq F

Student’s background and behaviour 0.404 0.386 22.42***

Language of instruction 0.611 0.373 125.51***

Teacher 0.570 0.325 16.37***

School structure and curriculum materials 0.453 0.205 8.32***

Instruction/support 0.368 0.136 7.30***

School management 0.366 0.111 5.73***

***Significant at p < .001

The maximum total variance explained (shown under the column R Square) by a

single model which contains all the variables listed in Table 5 aggregated together is

55.5%. The table also tells us that student background variables as an independent

group explain 38.6% of the total variation in learners’ achievement. The language of

instruction - which essentially concerns learning in the mother tongue - explains

37.3% of variation before other variables are controlled. Teacher characteristics taken

alone explain 32.5% of the variation in achievement of schools. Meanwhile, variables

in school structure and curriculum materials explain 20.5% of the variation in


59

learners’ achievement before other variables are controlled. School management as a

block contributes 11.1% of the variation in achievement before considering other

factors. Table 5 thus clearly demonstrates that the language of instruction is the

second most important factor that influences the quality of schooling in Ethiopia.

This suggests that the country needs to move rapidly to the use of additional local

languages as media of instruction in its schools. Given the gap between the number

of existing languages and the ones that are used in schools, the wastage in the quality

of learning is quite alarming.

Summary

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between studying through

the medium of the mother tongue and academic achievement in Grade 8 in Ethiopia.

The subjects considered were Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics and English.

The main approach of the study was a comparative survey with cross sectional

perspectives. Student achievement was measured using achievement tests. Other

variables were explored through the use of questionnaires for students, teachers and

headteachers.

Findings from the study indicate that the aggregate scores of students who studied

Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology in Grade 8 with their mother tongue

were significantly higher than those who studied these subjects in the non-mother

tongue. Similarly, when student achievement scores for each subject are considered,

it is found out that those who studied with the mother tongue gained significantly

more than those who studied the same subjects in the non-mother tongue. The highest

mean difference between those studying in the mother and non-mother tongues (10.7

points) was in Biology. This was followed by Physics (difference of 7.95 points),

Chemistry (6.42 points) and Mathematics (4.18 points). Another interesting finding is

that learning in the mother tongue and the mother tongue itself as a subject facilitate

learning a foreign language more than learning in the foreign language and the foreign

language itself as a subject. A comparison of the impact of learning with the mother

tongue with other factors indicates that the language of instruction is the second

strongest variable which explains variation in student achievement.

Conclusions

Like elsewhere in the world, this study has confirmed the pedagogical effectiveness of

learning with the mother tongue in Ethiopia. It suggests not only that the policy of

providing primary education in the mother tongue is appropriate, but also that it

should be maintained. Moreover, as very many of the local languages have not yet

been used for instruction; efforts are needed to enable all children to have the same

opportunity. Since the study identified that learning with the mother tongue is one of

the most decisive factors in student achievement, a proper implementation of the

language policy in Ethiopian education is required. This study, therefore, provides

clear evidence for adopting a positive approach towards plurality of languages in

education.


60

References

Bamgbose, A. 1984. Mother tongue and scholastic attainment in Nigeria. Prospects

14(1), 87-95.

Chen, Z. 1996. Quality Schooling with Limited Resources: An International

Comparison of Mathematics and Science Education in China, Korea and Hungary.

Stockholm : IIE, University of Stockholm.

Corvalán, G. 1984. Mother tongue and educational attainment in Paraguay.

Prospects, Quarterly Review of Education 14(1), 95-107.

Comstock, G. 1994. Broadcasting and technology : Effects on children and youth. In

T.Husen and T.N.Postlethwaite (eds), The International Encyclopaedia of

Education. Oxford : Pergamon.

Fuller, B. 1986. Raising Quality in Developing Countries : What Investments

Boost Learning? Washington, D.C. : World Bank.

Gordon, R.G., Jr. (ed.). 2005. Ethnologue : Languages of the World. 15th edition.

Dallas, Tex. : SIL International. Online version www.ethnologue.com accessed 18

July 2006.

Haile Selassie, T.H. 2005. The cultural foundation of education in Ethiopia.

Unpublished document.

Hameso, S. 1997. The language of education in Africa : The key issues. Language,

Culture and Curriculum 10(1), 1-13.

Houis, M. 1976. The problem of choice of languages in Africa. Prospects,

Quarterly Review of Education 6(3), 393-405.

Hutchison, J. 1998. Approaching the question of language of instruction in African

education. Paper presented at World Bank Language of Instruction Seminar, Dar-es-

Salaam, 20-22 April 1998.

Komarek, K. 1997. Mother Tongue Education in Sub-Saharan Countries :

Conceptual and Strategic Considerations. Eschborn : GTZ.

Kuper, W. 2003. The necessity of introducing mother tongues in education systems

of developing countries. In A.Ouane (ed.), Towards a Multilingual Culture of

Education, 89-102. Hamburg : UNESCO Institute for Education.

Laforge, L. 1987. Presentation. In J.Poth (ed.), Proceedings of the International

Colloquium on Language Planning, Ottawa, 25-29 May 1986. Quebec:

International Centre for Research on Bilingualism, Presses de l’Université Laval.

Mackey, W.F. 1984. Mother-tongue education : Problems and prospects. Prospects

14(1), 37-51.


61

Merriam, S.B. 1998. Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in

Education. San Francisco : Jossey Bass.

Ouane, A. 2003. The view from inside the linguistic jail. In A.Ouane (ed.),

Towards a Multilingual Culture of Education, 1-14. Hamburg : UNESCO Institute

for Education.

Parelius, R.J. and Parelius, A.P. 1987. The Sociology of Education. 2nd edition.

New Jersey : Prentice-Hall Inc.

Pattanayak, D.P. 2003. Multilingual contexts and their ethos. In A.Ouane (ed.),

Towards a Multilingual Culture of Education, 129-139. Hamburg : UNESCO

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Patton, M.Q. 1987. How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation. London : Sage.

Rotberg, I.C. 1984. Bilingual education policy in the United States. Prospects 14(1),

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Siguan, M. 1984. Language and education in Catalonia. Prospects 14(1), 107-121.

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63-75.

Cohen Mother tongue and other tongue 62

Chapter 6

Mother tongue and other tongue in primary education : Can equity

be achieved with the use of different languages?

Gideon P.E.Cohen

Introduction

The majority of Ethiopians speak more than one language, even if they are not fluent

in every language they speak. Many Ethiopians need to use more than one language

in order to pursue their livelihoods and to access economic opportunities and services

in the State, since particular occupations are tied to the use of certain languages

(Bjeren 1985). Languages in Ethiopia adopt a variety of roles and lead to different

opportunities and these vary greatly according to the situations in which individual

Ethiopians find themselves, including their areas of origin and their economic and

educational status. The language that Ethiopians speak in the home may not be the

language used in nearby markets (Cooper 1976a, 1976b) or on transport routes. The

language profiles of men are often broadly different from those of women in the same

community. In rural areas levels of bilingualism and multilingualism amongst boys

and men are much higher than amongst girls and women, as males travel more widely

and need to use languages of wider communication (Cohen 2000). This reflects the

economic value of languages that lead to opportunities - including trade, transport

sector employment and migrant labour - that are inherently linked to gender. The

language profile of the Ethiopian population has changed over time as bilingualism,

with Amharic as a second language, has become an accepted norm for many non-

Amharic mother tongue speakers. Urban populations from all language backgrounds

also demonstrate a marked tendency to shift to Amharic, often losing the language

spoken by their parents (Cooper 1976d).

In order to access even the most basic primary education, prior to the period of the

present Government, it was necessary to learn Amharic and to learn in Amharic

(McNab 1989). The Amharic language was the only vehicle for accessing wider

economic and educational opportunities in the Ethiopian State. To some extent this is

still true as the hegemonic societal position of Amharic remains unassailable, even

though, since 1991, other Ethiopian languages have been employed for official

purposes, including primary education (Cohen 2000). Some languages are extending

the range of their uses, in response to and as a result of the recent development of

written forms (Cooper 1976c), but the use of local languages remains restricted and is

arguably somewhat artificial or imposed.

The diversity of languages in Ethiopia and their respective societal roles are now

framed within a new context of state sponsored language development where several

regional, zonal and local languages are employed for official purposes. The use of

these newly introduced languages as media of instruction1 in the primary education

system has been the most visible manifestation of the changes in language use. This

has stimulated widespread debate about whether it is beneficial for students to learn in

their mother tongues. The arguments for and against the introduction of regional and

local languages for the purpose of primary education in Ethiopia will be discussed


only briefly below as I have already attempted to describe them in some detail

elsewhere (Cohen 2006).

The Ethiopian education system aims to produce equity and provide primary

education to an increasing proportion of children in the country. This includes

providing education in children’s mother tongues, thereby making education more

accessible and, therefore, one might assume, more equitable (Gfeller 1999, Pursely

1997). The idea of equity, however, raises several difficult ideological questions. On

close examination, although equity seems to be a worthy aim for the education

system, it becomes increasingly difficult to define what ‘equity’ means the more one

focuses on it. Promoting the concept of equity is a way of asserting that we would

like things to be fair, but in the case of primary education it is difficult to understand

what ‘fair’ is. Above all, as will be argued later in this chapter, equity appears

impossible to measure, thus relegating it to an ill-defined aim, without any means of

establishing whether it has been, or can be, achieved. The present chapter does not

seek to provide answers to these questions, although the assumption that these

questions should be addressed is one of the reasons for the development of this topic.

Instead the chapter seeks to explore the concept of equity with specific reference to

the diversity and use of different languages in the formal primary education system.

The central question which the chapter addresses is Can Ethiopian children obtain an

equal quality of primary education and gain access to wider opportunities in the state

if they are educated in different languages?

Federalism and language use in primary education in Ethiopia since 1991

The use of several Ethiopian languages in primary education is a reflection of reforms

in the geopolitical structures of the state after 1991 that divided Ethiopia into regional

states based upon the broadest formulations of identity, such as ‘Amhara’ and

‘Oromo’. The borders of the regions were established according to language borders

recorded in the linguistic literature that attempted a categorisation of Ethiopian

peoples according to language and geographical area.2 The rights of nationalities

within the state to use languages for official purposes are enshrined in article 39 of the

1994 Constitution of Ethiopia (Government of Federal Democratic Republic of

Ethiopia 1994a). The use of regional languages is a strong feature of federalism and

an aspect of the representation of Ethiopia’s ethno-linguistic groups of people. But

the division of the country into regions defined by language is problematic because of

the lack of unambiguous linguistic boundaries and the high degree of contact and

mixing between the various peoples that inhabit the state. Consequently, the assertion

of the rights of Ethiopia’s constituent groups to use their languages raises practical

concerns about where and how the various languages can or should be used.

The Education and Training Policy promotes the use of regional and local languages

for two stated reasons (Government of Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia

1994b). The first is the claim that learning in the mother tongue has clear pedagogical

advantages for the child, who feels comfortable and reassured by their ability to

understand and analyse information in their own language. The second is the claim

that the use of local languages in education accords with the rights of nationalities to

self-expression that are enshrined in the Constitution of Ethiopia. The Ministry of

Education, therefore, presents both pedagogical and ideological justifications for


promoting the use of local languages for primary education. This is, in itself,

indicative of the nature of the reform : there is a lack of clarity about which of these

two justifications is more important and, indeed, whether they are necessarily

mutually reinforcing. This chapter is mainly concerned to examine equity in the

primary education system from a pedagogical perspective in an attempt to understand

whether it is fair to provide education in several different languages. It is, however,

impossible to entirely separate the pedagogical rationale for using mother tongues

from the political connotations of the use of regional and local languages.

While the ideological justifications for the policy may be questioned, it is clear that

children achieve greater success in education, at least during the first years of primary

education, when they learn in their mother tongues (Bamgbose 1976, 1994). The

strength of the pedagogical arguments in favour of using mother tongues in primary

education has not, however, been adequate to satisfy the critics of the policy in

Ethiopia. The use of local languages in primary education has been seen by some as

an aspect of an ethnically divisive policy that encourages the perception of differences

and the development of regional nationalisms. The supporters of the view argue that

using local languages perpetuates - or even creates - ethnic enclaves and encourages

the development of narrow formulations of identity. They believe that the use of local

languages is inherently politically divisive and compromises the integrity of the state

(Cohen 2006:172). But this argument ignores wider political and social realities of

the multilingual, multiethnic state in Ethiopia and assumes that language diversity

rather than other factors is responsible for creating divisions in society.

Other less emotional and more rationally conceived arguments include that learning in

local languages limits students’ social mobility and narrows the range of economic

opportunities that are open to them (Cohen 2006:175). Some Ethiopian languages are

highly developed vehicles for education that promote a full understanding of

concepts, facilitate literacy and lead to wider opportunities in the state. Other

languages that are inadequately developed for education inevitably relegate children

who are educated in them to less-than-equal status within the state, making it

impossible for them to compete on equal terms for opportunities with Ethiopians who

are educated in well developed languages. The argument that the use of different

languages is inherently unfair and unequal - considering the different societal and

historical positions and levels of development and standardisation of languages - is

the most important for the present chapter as it criticises the use of different languages

from a pedagogical perspective and attempts to highlight issues of equity.

A question of equality

The assumption that it is possible to produce equity in the education system while

using several languages as media of instruction is based upon the idea that, on some

fundamental level, languages are inherently equal, at least in the sense that they can

perform identical functions. Indeed, both linguists and philosophers of language often

assert that languages are equal.3 It is argued that languages represent complete

systems for thought and communication and have the ability to express all of the ideas

that exist in the societies where they are used, and are, therefore, equal from a

theoretical or ideological perspective. Another view is that - since all human beings

or societies have languages - all languages are equal. This view is particularly


attractive because the idea of language equality implies the equality of the groups of

people who use languages, since language, ethnicity, nationality and other forms of

human identity are inter-related. This view fits in with internationally accepted

assertions that human beings are equal. Languages as representatives of people or

societies are, therefore, assumed to be inherently equal; it is felt to be unacceptable to

assert otherwise.

However, some human beings live with the assumption of a high degree of stability

and security whilst others live with constant threats of violence, poverty or famine.

The citizens of particular continents and countries have markedly different economic

expectations and opportunities. The social climate also varies dramatically from one

part of the world to another. People follow different religions that dictate their

lifestyles. Within states some ethnic groups have high prestige, whilst others are

despised. Particular states are more powerful, economically dominant or politically

influential. If people are unequal in these dimensions then it would appear unrealistic

to assume that their languages are equal. The status of particular groups of people

directly affects the standing of their languages (Hastings 1997). Some languages are

spoken over huge geographical areas by large numbers of speakers. These languages

of wider communication are also the usual preference for second language acquisition

of speakers of smaller languages. Some languages have well developed written

literature replete with subtle nuances and cultural references. Other languages are

restricted in their range of uses and have not developed written forms. It is only

necessary to reflect on the cultural and economic dominance of the English language

at the global level in order to demonstrate that languages are not equal in terms of

patterns of use and prestige.

The levels of development of languages also vary greatly and there is a difference in

the prestige of written languages and those that are restricted to oral uses. A written

language is able to develop a written language. Moreover the speakers of a language

which has a written form are able to record their history. The use of a written

language helps to provide the state with a degree of legitimacy. Languages that have

been standardised over centuries are sanctioned by society and the state for official or

formal uses including administration, religion, education and the judicial system.

Other languages that have no written forms are restricted to unofficial, informal uses

such as in the home or markets, and locally or culturally specific functions, although

some oral languages do have official uses within the societies where they are spoken.

Mother tongue speakers of written languages are more likely to be educated, in a

formal sense, and to become literate than those who are mother tongue speakers of

oral languages; the former consequently, have an enhanced status.

Official languages lend an aspect of authority to their speakers and give them power

in real situations. In many countries the written documents of the State and the legal

systems are based upon the use of one language that has been selected as the official

national language, although there are examples of success in using multiple languages

for official purposes where several languages are already spoken as mother tongues

by the population. Examples of this type include Switzerland, India, Singapore,

Nigeria and Paraguay. In other countries where there is an established dominant

language, including the UK and USA, governments have attempted to introduce the

use of languages other than the national language for official purposes. These

languages may be the languages of minority groups, such as Welsh in the UK and


Spanish in USA, or of immigrant populations, such as Urdu and Chinese in the UK.

In this case languages are employed for specific purposes including the media and the

provision of information in state documents. But it remains the case that the speakers

of dominant or official national languages are at a distinct advantage. The use of

minority languages for official purposes, moreover, while aiming to promote their use

and enhance their societal status runs the risk of further underlining their subordinate

role if their use appears artificial and ungainly. It may appear that languages are used

for official purposes merely in an attempt to cover up underlying patterns of

inequality. All of these factors affect the social status and prestige of languages and

define the opportunities that are open to people who use them.

The patterns of use of particular languages shape the attitudes towards both the

languages and their speakers both among their speakers and other members of society.

Given the undeniably high degree of diversity in the uses of languages, it appears

impossible to assert that languages are equal.

The diversity of language use in Ethiopia

Amharic is the most prominent language in Ethiopia. It is recognised in the

Constitution as the working language of the state, but has not been given the legal

status of the official national language in order to avoid underlining its societal pre-

eminence. In Ethiopia there is no single official language, rather several languages

have official roles, although it is still Amharic which remains most closely associated

with the state. Amharic is a mature standardised language with a highly developed

historical body of literature. In Ethiopia it was the only language of government

administration from the mid-19th century until 1991, and it remains the language of

the central government. Linguistically diverse regions such as Southern Nations,

Nationalities and Peoples Region (SNNPR) and Beneshangul Gumuz have decided to

use Amharic as the designated language of regional communication even though it is

not the language of any of the constituent ethnic groups in those regions. The use of

Amharic in the media is highly developed. Most radio stations in Ethiopia broadcast

exclusively in Amharic, although recently regional and zonal radio stations

broadcasting in local languages have been established in SNNPR, Tigray and other

regions. TV broadcasts in Tigrinya and Afaan Oromoo are restricted to an hour-long

news programme each day in both languages, otherwise the state TV station

broadcasts exclusively in Amharic and English.

Perhaps even more significant than the official uses of the language are the unofficial

societal roles of Amharic, which have ensured that it is the preferred second language

for speakers of other Ethiopian languages. Amharic has achieved an unassailable

position as an accepted national lingua franca, and even Ethiopians who claim not to

accept the dominant status of the language readily use it for certain purposes.

Amharic is used throughout the country for transport, trade, banking and other

essential services. Government workers and other literate people throughout the

country rely on Amharic even in circumstances where it is not the officially

designated language. There is a pronounced pattern of language shift to Amharic in

urban areas. While there are cultural reasons for this shift it is also clear that speakers

of Amharic, and those who learn in Amharic, are in a stronger position than others to

access state-related and other economic opportunities in Ethiopia.


Speakers of other Semitic languages may benefit from similarities between their

languages and Amharic, including the use of the same script and a high percentage of

cognates. But some Semitic speakers, particularly Gurages, demonstrate a profound

pattern of shifting to Amharic, especially since Amharic is used as the official

language of the Gurage Zone and is also the lingua franca between members of the

Gurage ethnic group.4 Among the other Ethiopian Semitic languages, Tigrinya,

although not fully standardised, is developing into a viable literary language and

certainly has a future role as an official regional language and language of primary

education in Tigray. But the use of Tigrinya is likely to remain restricted to its home

region, and may also, therefore, restrict the mobility of people educated in the

language.

A substantial proportion of Ethiopians speak languages from the Cushitic language

family as mother tongues. The Agew group of languages are spoken in northern

Ethiopia, in Amhara and Tigray Regions. Most of the speakers of these languages are

shifting to Amharic, except in Agew Awi Zone of Amhara Region where Awgni is

used as the medium of instruction for primary education. Lowland East Cushitic is

the most populous branch of the Cushitic language family comprising three of

Ethiopia’s largest language groups - Oromo, Afar and Somali - each of which has its

own Regional State. The Highland East Cushitic group is made up of several of

Ethiopia’s medium sized ethnic groups with populations that range up to three million

speakers. These include the Sidama, Hadiya, Kambatta, Gedeo, Alaba, Burji and

Mareko, all of whom live in the SNNPR. Although the Cushitic languages are widely

spoken they were never written or standardised for official purposes prior to 1991 and

were restricted to oral uses, although some study and attempts to transcribe the

languages were made by speakers and missionaries.

The Lowland and Highland East Cushitic languages are written in the Latin script,

using an orthography called the Qube. The characters, however, represent quite

different sounds from their use in English. The Qube writing system was initially

developed from the orthography for Somali (as used in Somalia) in order to transcribe

Afaan Oromoo, the language of the Oromo people, which is similar in many respects

to Somali. Afaan Oromoo is used by a huge population : roughly one third of the

population of Ethiopia speak it as a mother tongue. However it is mostly restricted to

mother tongue speakers and very few other Ethiopians learn it as a second language.

The written form is young and not fully standardised for official uses, but is

nevertheless widely used in education. Due to the size of the population who speak it

as a mother tongue, it is second to Amharic in terms of importance in the state. The

Omotic languages, of which the most widely spoken is Wolayta (others include Kaffa,

Sheka, Gamo, Dawro and Gofa) have also been transcribed using the Qube. This

decision was made in order to simplify language development processes and it was

also assumed that the use of one orthography would assist mutual intelligibility of

languages. The Omotic languages are located in the SNNPR, where the Highland

East Cushitic languages also use the Qube.

The Highland East Cushitic and Omotic languages have relatively small populations,

however, and their use as media of instruction in primary education is often argued to

be a limiting factor that restricts the mobility of their speakers, causing them to be

able to access opportunities only within their own zones (Cohen 2006:175). In

addition, these areas have the highest population density in Ethiopia. Consequently


they have very high migration flows to areas outside the SNNPR that necessitate the

use of Amharic for migrants (Cohen 2003). Within the SNNPR some people have

presented a counter argument that the shared use of the Qube facilitates mutual

intelligibility between these languages, by enabling people from the various ethnic

groups in the region to become literate in each other’s languages. But a question

remains about whether this is in itself important or valuable, or merely represents a

further level of restriction, albeit a less localised one. In order to access wider

opportunities in the Ethiopian State it is still necessary for people from SNNPR to

learn Amharic and English. This point is underlined by the fact that the regional

government in Awassa, capital of SNNPR, uses Amharic for regional administrative

purposes. So even within the region itself the highest opportunities explicitly depend

on literacy in Amharic. This would appear to compromise the quality and value of

education for people receiving primary education in local languages and secondary

education in English.

A further consideration is whether primary education in languages transcribed in the

Qube adversely affects students’ abilities to learn Amharic and English. Learning in

the Qube means that students have to learn an additional script in order to become

literate in Amharic. Learning Amharic as one subject in primary school limits

students’ exposure to the language and compromises their ability to achieve fluency in

the language. The relationships between the written forms of the local languages and

English are even more problematic. The two markedly different uses of the Latin

script, for Qube and English, often confuse students and inhibit their abilities to

transfer easily between the two languages. As students learn the Qube first, this

affects their ability to master English (Cohen 2000:192-195). Students, who learn in

their mother tongues and first learn to read and write using the Qube may, therefore,

be at a disadvantage in terms of learning, and using languages of wider

communication. Students at Addis Ababa University who were first educated in the

Qube find switching to English more difficult than those educated in Amharic as they

make repeated mistakes when trying to spell and pronounce English words. This

difficulty arises from the different uses of the Roman script for the Qube and the

English language. This appears to compromise the goal of providing an equitable

quality of education to students and of providing students with equal access to higher

education, where English is the medium of instruction.

Border regions in Ethiopia have two reactions to language development. Somali

Region has adopted Somali language for education and government administration.

This is not surprising given that the language has already been developed and is used

by other states (Somalia and Somaliland) and has, therefore, an existing body of

literature in the language. Neighbouring Afar Region, on the other hand, has selected

Amharic as the medium of instruction for primary education and government

administration, perhaps in an attempt to secure closer integration with the state and to

obtain the benefits that this will bring. Similarly, Beneshangul Gumuz, which is a

very diverse region in terms of ethnicity and language, employs Amharic as the

official language of administration. Again this may be a means of asserting a closer

identification with the Ethiopian State, as this phenomenon has also been observed in

peripheral areas in the SNNPR (Cohen 2005). On the other hand Gambella Region,

also in Western Ethiopia, has asserted its individual regional character by promoting

the use of the local Anyuak language. Regions with lower literacy rates, such as Afar

and Beneshangul Gumuz may adopt Amharic in order to attract literate individuals


from other areas of the country, as they may not have adequate local people who are

literate in either Amharic or in the local languages to staff the administration and

education systems. In these peripheral areas, the politicisation of languages is

marked. The choice of particular languages for official purposes makes a strong

statement about the region and the identity of its inhabitants. Considering the various

criteria upon which decisions to use, or not to use, languages in education are made, is

it possible to think that equity in primary education can be achieved for all of the

peoples in the state, even if enrolment rates increase in all of Ethiopia’s regions?

Competing for roles – an unequal playing field

In Ethiopia language development has been conceptualised in terms of either local

language development or the continued domination of Amharic, as if languages are

inherently in competition with one another. An alternative ideological stance would

have been to see the use of several languages as complementary rather than

antagonistic. The idea of language competition is in itself problematic. Human

beings are not restricted to using only one language. Languages do not inhabit

limited, defined spaces. Rather they overlap and work together in a fluid manner,

they cross international borders and defy the attempts of states to standardise and

control their use. Languages have official and unofficial patterns of use, regional and

urban dialects, slangs and creoles. Languages borrow from each other happily

incorporating and modifying elements of other languages within their own structures.

In the absence of language policies sanctioned by the state, languages develop and

assume particular societal roles based upon their practical or perceived benefits. In

Ethiopia, state-sponsored language development has attempted to determine that the

roles which languages play should be based upon criteria other than their existing

patterns of use, or their practical benefits. In other words, the state has attempted to

construct an ideal scenario for language use which might not be realistically

achievable. As a result, several mother tongues have been introduced as media of

instruction in primary education. Amharic is taught as a subject in primary and

secondary education in non-Amharic speaking areas. English is taught as a subject in

primary education and then becomes the medium of instruction for secondary and

tertiary education. The idea that equity can be achieved by using all mother tongues

equally in primary education, rather than by understanding how each language can

best be used, requires the questionable assumptions that the state is able to control the

use of languages and that all languages can be used in the same way.

Learning in one language may facilitate the study of another language. Second

languages are often learned through the vehicles of mother tongues, including in

Europe where second languages are learned in formal education settings. In other

circumstances students learn second languages through total immersion when second

languages are employed as the exclusive medium of instruction in formal primary

education. This was previously the case in Ethiopia, where non-Amharic speaking

students learned Amharic and learned in Amharic from their first day in school. This

practice, however, led to high drop-out rates during grade one in non-Amharic

speaking areas, which were attributed by many teachers, and the present author, to be

largely due to alienation experienced by students resulting primarily from the use of a

language other than students’ mother tongue. In order to address this situation

Ethiopian regional and local languages were introduced for use in primary education.


But they were introduced in great haste before they were sufficiently standardised for

the purpose of education. Preparations including adequate training of teachers to use

local languages in the classroom and the development of textbooks were inadequate,

and the purpose of the reform was not made explicit to local communities. In

practice, therefore, using local languages for primary education in Ethiopia is unlikely

to produce an equal quality of education for students since some languages are better

developed as vehicles for education than others, if only because they are more

standardised as a result of existing patterns of use.

Although it is clear that children should have their first learning experiences in their

mother tongues in order to increase their confidence in educational situations

(Bamgbose 1991), it should also be recognised that one of the important roles for

mother tongues in primary education is as vehicles for teaching languages of wider

communication (Eastman 1983). In Ethiopia, moreover, local languages should not

necessarily be the only languages used as media of instruction in primary education,

while Amharic and English are taught only as single subjects. Some subjects in

primary education may be more effective when taught in Amharic or English from the

beginning, whereas others are best suited to the use of local languages. In order to

teach some subjects in local languages there has to be an artificial process of creating

new words. Both teachers and students may feel that these neologisms are contrived

and do not make sense; teachers and learners may therefore feel uncomfortable with

their use. This problem was particularly marked when local Ethiopian languages were

being developed for use in teaching science subjects.

If languages of wider communication are taught only as single subjects in primary

education, rather than adopted for broad use as media of instruction for subjects, then

it is unlikely that students will be able to use them confidently when they become the

media of instruction in secondary and tertiary education. So it would be better to

balance the use of local languages and languages of wider communication as media of

instruction in primary education, dividing subjects between the languages in an

appropriate manner. It would also satisfy the pedagogical rationale for the use of

local languages if they were used as the principal media of instruction for the first

cycle of primary education (grades 1-4) but only given as subjects in the second cycle

(grades 5-8) when languages of wider communication should be utilised as the media

of instruction. In that case students would gain both the benefits of using their mother

tongues in education and achieving fluency and competence in languages of wider

communication.

In the present circumstances children who receive primary education in Amharic are

at a distinct advantage in the state because Amharic is the de facto societal lingua

franca and the official working language of Ethiopia. Achieving second language

fluency in Amharic is necessary for students continuing in education, and the wider

societal importance of Amharic, moreover, in accessing economic opportunities is not

well understood within the context of attempts to produce equity. Above all, the

potential positive impact of strengthening one national language for communication

has not been recognised. In Ethiopia using one common language might also

contribute towards the goal of producing equity. This is not to say that Amharic

should be the only language of primary education; rather, it has an important role to

play and it produces distinct advantages for students who learn in the language, even

if it is not their mother tongue. It should also be recognised that teachers are generally


more confident and competent in using Amharic than other languages, at times even

including their own mother tongues; teachers’ enhanced capacities in Amharic also

pass on educational benefits to their students.

English also provides significant advantages and opportunities to Ethiopian children,

but in general the standard of competence in English is low among both teachers and

students, even though this is the designated language of secondary and tertiary

education (Honig 1996). In state-sponsored primary and secondary education

inaccurate use of English is passed from teacher to student, and even those students

who are successful in education and reach tertiary levels of education have little

confidence in the language for written or oral purposes. It is often observed that

teachers in the Ethiopian education system are most confident when using Amharic,

compared to either the recently developed local languages or English. Thus there

appears to be a mismatch between the roles which languages are expected to play and

the competences of teachers and learners in those languages. Again, this does not

imply that the use of English in the Ethiopian education system should be reduced or

even abolished altogether. English still has an important role to play, but its role

should be complementary to Amharic and its use should not be seen as replacing, or

as preferable to, Amharic. It would be easier to think about achieving equity if the

patterns of use of local languages, Amharic and English in the Ethiopian education

system were more integrated and students were able to gain appropriate competences

in each of the languages rather than becoming literate in only one language. If

Amharic was placed firmly at the core of the education system it is likely that greater

equity would be the outcome.

There remain, moreover, two fundamental challenges. The first is how to measure

equity, and the second is how to understand the respective impacts of the use of

different languages as media of instruction in primary education. Without answers to

these questions, the discussion of equity remains abstract and undefined.

Development workers might argue that it is possible to measure equity between the

use of different languages through examining enrolment rates and other standard

indicators used to assess performance in education and then applying these to areas

where different languages are used. This might prove to be a way of comparing how

well different languages perform as languages of education. Attainment can be

measured through graduation, drop-out and repetition rates in the primary education

system and the rate of promotion to secondary and tertiary education. However, these

factors are not related to the use of a specific language and so cannot be employed to

answer the core question. The closer examination of these ways of measuring equity

invites a host of further questions about the viability of such indicators to tell us

anything at all, given other intervening variables which include varying teacher

competences, lack of uniformity in applying standard evaluation criteria, the diversity

of languages used as media of instruction, and the varying degrees of standardisation

of these languages. Given these, and other, variables it is impossible to argue that

students graduating in one region compared to those in another region, or even those

graduating in two neighbouring schools, have necessarily achieved the same degree of

competence in a particular subject.

This question, however, requires conclusive research that should be conducted at both

the level of Ethiopia’s regions and also in national institutions such as Addis Ababa

University and the Civil Service College. There is a profound need for more research


to be conducted into language issues in general and the implementation and use of

local languages in primary education in particular in Ethiopia. For the purposes of the

present chapter the arguments are presented in order to question whether the goal of

achieving equity is viable, given the current patterns of language use and the trend to

use only one language in a given area as the medium of instruction for primary

education.

A question of choice

Groups of people in Ethiopia, albeit elites of one kind or another, have already

exercised choice in their selection of languages for primary education. This is done

according to their rights as stated in the Constitution and the Education and Training

Policy. The Education and Training Policy states that ‘Nations and Nationalities can

either learn in their own languages or can choose from among those selected on the

basis of national and countrywide distribution’ (Government of the Federal

Democratic Republic of Ethiopia 1994b : Article 3.5.2). There are inequalities in

peoples’ ability to make such choices. Indeed there is a question as to whether the

implementation of language reforms in education in Ethiopia is an imposition or a

genuine manifestation of people’s own aspirations (Hoben 1995). Some urban

populations have been successful in rejecting the use of regional languages in favour

of using Amharic as a medium of instruction for primary education. This tendency

has been most pronounced in Oromiya where many of the larger urban centres in

Ethiopia are located. The capital towns of geopolitical zones in SNNPR have also

decided to provide primary education in Amharic and local languages, often in

different schools, thus giving a choice of media of instruction to the residents. Zones

and special wereda5 in SNNPR - including Bench Maji and South Omo Zones and

Alaba Special Wereda - selected Amharic as the medium of instruction in an attempt

to secure greater regional and national integration for their inhabitants. In Amhara

Region, Oromiya Zone chose to use Afaan Oromoo as the medium of instruction,

whilst Agew Awi Zone selected Awgni as its medium. These developments

demonstrate a high degree of pragmatism and enlightenment regarding language

development on the part of regional authorities in Ethiopia that should be recognised

and applauded, and provide a basis for increasing flexibility in the application of

language policies and the use of local languages in education.

In the urban regions (Addis Ababa, Dire Dawa and Harar), several languages are

available as media of instruction for primary education. In Harar and Dire Dawa

primary education is provided in Adare, Somali, Afaan Oromoo, Arabic, Amharic and

English. In Addis Ababa the choice is between Amharic and a range of foreign

languages of which English is the most prevalent. In these areas the choices parents

make about what language to have their children educated in reflects their perceptions

of identity and opportunity. The choice of a language for primary education is a

choice about identity, it says something about who we are, and it is also a choice

about who we want our children to be and the opportunities that we hope will be open

to them. This varies for different people depending on where they live, their existing

circumstances and the range of opportunities that they consider are realistically

available to their children. However, it is clear that the ability and the right to choose

has been afforded to at least some parents in Ethiopia. Consequently, the possibility


of exercising choice must also be understood to be an important aspect of equity – an

aspect which has often been ignored until now.

Conclusion : Is equity a valuable concept to apply to primary education?

The idea of generating equity is compromised by the use of different languages for

two main reasons. Firstly, the different levels of development of languages affect

their use as languages of education and affect the quality of education that schools are

able to provide. Secondly, different patterns of use mean that languages do not give

access to equal opportunities either in the education system or in terms of wider

economic and social opportunities in the state. Given these two factors it appears

difficult to achieve equity in a primary education system that employs so many

different languages. There may, however, be a way of reconceptualising equity and

rethinking the relationships between languages that could give the concept renewed

vigour and relevance.

In Ethiopia, while there is clearly a need to engage in the development of regional and

local languages in order to increase equity this should not be done or conceptualised

as being at the expense of further development and strengthening of languages of

wider communication within the education system, including both Amharic and

English. But the role of local languages in primary education should be appropriate to

their actual patterns of use in society and to their existing range of functions, and the

implementation of language policies should be flexible enough to react to changing

situations as well as aiming to stimulate or enforce particular conditions. In education

one of the most important roles of using local languages should be to teach languages

of wider communication. There is a need to strengthen the use of Amharic and to

place it at the core of the education system. At the practical level it is important to

recognise that in Ethiopia most teachers have more highly developed abilities in

Amharic than in other languages. So it is important to maximise teacher effectiveness

by giving Amharic an enlarged role. It is also important to improve the quality of

English language teaching within the education system in order to produce equity for

students in primary education in Ethiopia. If the relationships between languages

could be more integrated and decisions about language less a case of choosing

between languages as vehicles for education and rather choices about which

languages are better suited to particular purposes, then this would assist greatly

towards achieving an equitable primary education for students. It would be more

realistic to aim at equity with the use of more than one language in education than by

making rigid choices between languages.

Finally, there is also a profound need to reconceptualise equity within the context of

the education system. Achieving equity in education should not be seen narrowly in

terms of enrolment and access to primary education, or attainment, but in a broader

context as preparation for life. The education system needs to capitalise on the range

of opportunities that are open to students through education, rather than measuring

success in terms of processing students through the system, with the limited goal of

entry into secondary and tertiary education. Mother tongue primary education is, in

any case, an inefficient means of securing access to continuing education, since

secondary and tertiary education are based upon the use of languages of wider

communication. Rather, the great value of using mother tongues is in non-formal


education. In order to maximise the efficacy of language development, education in

local languages should be seen within the wider frame of national development.

Languages should be developed for appropriate uses in facilitating training in

agriculture and other rural occupations, which are likely to continue to provide the

basis for the livelihoods of the great majority of Ethiopia’s people for the foreseeable

future.

Notes 1 A medium of instruction is the language in which subjects are taught in the education system.

2 Particularly the language maps in Bender et al. (1976).

3 For a summary of the arguments and references to the work of others see Hobsbawm (1996).

4 The Gurage ethnic group is linguistically diverse, containing more than ten distinct languages.

5 The wereda is a geopolitical unit, roughly equivalent to a county in the UK. There are more than 500

wereda in the Ethiopian State.

References

Bamgbose, A. (ed.). 1976. Mother Tongue Education : The African Experience.

London : Hodder and Stoughton.

Bamgbose, A. 1991. Language and the Nation. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University

Press.

Bender, M.L. et al. (eds). 1976. Language in Ethiopia. Oxford : Oxford University

Press.

Bjeren, G. 1985. Migration to Shashemene : Ethnicity, Gender and Occupation in

Urban Ethiopia. Uppsala : Scandinavian Institute of African Studies.

Cohen, G.P.E. 2000. Identity and Opportunity : The Introduction of Local

Languages for the Purpose of Primary Education in the SNNPR, Ethiopia.

Unpublished PhD thesis, University of London.

Cohen, G.P.E. 2003. Ethnicity and language shift : The case of returning Kambattas.

In Proceedings of the Institute of Language Studies 14th Conference Papers, 6-13.

Addis Ababa : Addis Ababa University Press.

Cohen, G.P.E. 2005. Language and ethnic boundaries : Perceptions of ethnic identity

expressed through attitudes towards the use of language education in southern

Ethiopia. Journal of North East African Studies New Series 7(3), 189-206.

Michigan : Michigan State University Press.

Cohen, G.P.E. 2006. The development of regional and local languages in Ethiopia’s

federal system. In D.Turton (ed.), Ethnic Federalism : The Ethiopian Experience in

Comparative Perspective, 165-180. Oxford : James Currey Publishers.


Cooper, R.L. 1976a. Mother tongue and other tongue in Kefa and Arusi. In

M.L.Bender et al. (eds), Language in Ethiopia, 213-243. Oxford : Oxford University

Press.

Cooper, R.L. 1976b. Language in the market. In M.L.Bender et al. (eds), Language

in Ethiopia, 224-255. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Cooper, R.L. 1976c. Language in the court. In M.L.Bender et al. (eds), Language in

Ethiopia, 256-263. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Cooper, R.L. 1976d. Language, migration and urbanisation. In M.L.Bender et al.

(eds), Language in Ethiopia, 191-212. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Eastman, C.M. 1983. Language Planning : An Introduction. San Francisco :

Chandler & Sharp.

Gfeller, E. 1999. Language Equality : Multilingual Issues in Education. Awassa,

Ethiopia : SNNP Regional Education Bureau.

Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 1994a. Constitution of

Ethiopia. Addis Ababa : Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of

Ethiopia.

Government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. 1994b. Education and

Training Policy. Addis Ababa : Ministry of Education.

Hastings, A. 1997. The Construction of Nationhood. Cambridge : Cambridge

University Press.

Hoben, S. 1995. The language of education : Empowerment or imposition. In

H.G.Marcus (ed.), Papers of the 12th International Conference of Ethiopian Studies,

182-197. Addis Ababa : Addis Ababa University Press.

Hobsbawm, E.J. 1996. Are all tongues equal? Language, culture and national

identity. In P.Barker (ed.), Living as Equals, 85-98. Oxford : Oxford University

Press.

Honig, B. 1996. Multilingual educational reform and teacher training in Ethiopia.

Language in Education 10(1), pp 1-11.

McNab, C. 1989. Language Policy and Language Practice. Stockholm : Institute

of International Education, University of Stockholm.

Pursely, L. 1997. Language in Education : The Implementation of Policy Reform

in the SNNPR. Awassa, Ethiopia : SNNP Regional Education Bureau.

Shamim English for development in Pakistan 76

Chapter 7

English as the language for development in Pakistan : Issues,

challenges and possible solutions

Fauzia Shamim

Introduction

English as the language for development has dominated the political and official

discourse in Pakistan as in other developing countries for a long time now. More

recently, the discourse of ‘Education for All’ and the increase in the use of English in

the global market have added a universalistic dimension to the teaching-learning of

English in Pakistan, thus making it a complex policy issue particularly for resource

distribution and achieving quality in English language education. ‘English is the

passport to success and upward social mobility’ and ‘English is the key to national

progress’ are some common clichés that are interspersed in the formal discourse of

official planning and policy meetings; more importantly, these clichés reflect the

perception of many people - both rich and poor - in discussing future life chances for

their children.

To begin with, it is important to clarify what is meant by ‘development’ and what are

the espoused relationships between language and development.

Education and development

Chabbot and Ramirez (2004) emphasise the central role of international development

organisations and conferences in rationalising a discourse that strongly links

development and education for national and individual development goals. A major

goal of education is poverty alleviation. However, recent studies emphasise the

social, political and cultural aspects of development in addition to economic gains

from development. Interestingly, the issue of language gets little space in this

emerging discourse about education and development.

The declaration of Education for All, signed by more than 150 nations, including

Pakistan, reaffirmed the close link between education and development at the

individual, national and global levels. A pertinent question asked by Brock-Utne is:

‘Education for all - in whose language?’ Brock-Utne argues, rightly in my view, that,

‘The concept “education for all” becomes a completely empty concept if the linguistic

environment of the basic learners is not taken into account’ (2000:141).

English as the language of global communication is often considered by donor

agencies as the de facto language for development in developing countries. Often a

lot of aid money is spent on improving the English proficiency of people and

communities in the recipient nation-states before or alongside other development

work. An example is the ten-year English Language Teaching Support programme

for Tanzanian secondary school teachers, funded by the British Council through the

former Overseas Development Administration (now the Department for International

Development) (Arthur 2001).


Language and development

Different kinds of relationship exist between language and development. Appleby et

al. (2002:327-328) identify at least four kinds :

- language in development, where English is viewed as playing an essential role in

the socioeconomic development of the country

- language as development, with English being taught ‘as an end in itself’

- language for development, where ‘English is used as a tool for other domains of

development’

- language of development, ‘the discourses that construct the ways in which

development happens’1.

In Pakistan, English is viewed mainly as the language for development at both the

individual and national levels. Indeed, the race for individual prosperity and

economic development at the national level seem to have overtaken issues of class,

identity and fear of cultural invasion from an erstwhile ‘colonial’ language.

The purpose of this chapter is to critically analyse the need and current provision for

the teaching-learning of English for individual and national development in Pakistan.

First, I will look briefly at the factors that have led to the current insatiable desire for

English in Pakistan. Second, the findings of a nation-wide study of the current

situation regarding the teaching-learning of English in public sector universities in

Pakistan (Shamim & Tribble 2005) will be reported so as to initiate discussion on the

adequacy or otherwise of provision for the teaching-learning of English in Pakistan.

Marsh’s (2005) framework of ‘drivers’ and ‘enablers’ will be used for this purpose.

Third, I will briefly examine the issues and challenges in the teaching-learning of

English, such as the possible consequences of current language policy on the literacy

level of children in English and other languages (including Urdu, the national

language of Pakistan). Finally, policy implications will be drawn for developing well

informed and, therefore, more realistic language-in-education policies in Pakistan. As

the demand for English and the educational provision in several other developing

contexts are similar to those in Pakistan, it is hoped that the study findings and the

resultant policy recommendations will be of benefit to language-in-development

workers in these contexts.

Drivers : Need for English in Pakistan

In Pakistan there has been a lack of systematic analysis and/or debate and dialogue

about the need for English. With the national literacy level being quite low at only

54% (Government of Pakistan 2004b), folklore about when children learn foreign

languages best and dreams of a bright future with English for their children often

influence the average person’s thinking and expressed desire for the teaching-learning

of English from early grades. This section will critically review the major drivers for

this felt need for English in an attempt to distil the main arguments for the need of

English in Pakistan.


Political gains

Pakistan is a multilingual and multicultural society. The linguistic map of Pakistan is

quite complex with many languages; each of the four provinces has one or more

dominant languages and a number of minority languages. The emblematic status of

English, due to its historical association with the elite and proto-elite (Haque 1983;

Rehman 1998, 2002), has helped in making it a prestigious language. English is the

language of power in comparison with Urdu, the national language, and other regional

languages of Pakistan. Each new government soon after it assumes power announces

its policy of teaching English to the masses as a way of achieving its democratic

ideals of equality of opportunity. As this decision is politically motivated, it comes as

no surprise that implementation efforts fall short of the supposedly democratic intent

of the policy. This official rhetoric of providing ‘equal’ opportunities for learning of

English as a potential tool to level differences amongst the social classes, without a

study of current provision and teachers’ ability to teach English effectively, does not

match the overall ‘two stream’ education policy in Pakistan. (We will consider the

‘two stream’ policy in detail later in this chapter.) Thus the teaching of English stays

as a live issue on the agenda of every successive government.

Economic gains

Jalal (2004:24) argues :

When we subscribe to the experts’ view that the economic future of Pakistan is

linked with the expansion of information technology, it means that we are

recognising the need for making the comprehension and use of English as

widespread as possible. This is now an urgent public requirement, and the

government takes it as its duty to fulfil this requirement.

This view has resulted in the English for All policy, where once again the government

has instructed all public sector schools to start teaching English from class I without

working out the feasibility of this policy decision or the steps and resources required

for its successful implementation. In contrast, the Higher Education Commission’s

English Language Teaching (ELT) Reform Project aims to improve the teaching-

learning of English in higher education institutions in Pakistan. Through improvement

in the teaching-learning of English, the project aims to revolutionise ‘the socio-

economic indicators of Pakistan’ and ‘contribute considerably to supplement the

efforts of government to improve the standard of higher education and scientific

learning’. More specifically, improving the teaching and learning of English ‘will help

the graduates of public sector universities and institutions of higher learning to

compete for good jobs in Pakistan’ (www.hec.gov.pk).

Advancement in learning English is unequivocally linked to technological

development, particularly in the field of information and communication technology

(ICT). However, the main argument revolves around learning English for long-term

economic gains. The official viewpoint resonates with the current discourse of

promoting education for poverty alleviation, a discourse initiated by development

agencies and also embodied in the millennium development goals. The majority of

people in Pakistan also subscribe to the view that English is the tool for individual and

national economic prosperity. These beliefs are in sharp contrast with the arguments


put forward for using the mother tongue for economic development, particularly in

rural communities in developing countries (e.g. Bruthiaux 2002; UNESCO 2005).

Two streams of education

In Pakistan, there are two distinct systems of education identified mainly in terms of

medium of instruction, i.e. English-medium and Urdu-medium. The English-medium

schools are privately owned and cater to the upper class as well as some sections of

the middle class. In contrast, the Urdu-medium schools are mainly public sector

schools catering to the lower income groups and they offer free education in addition

to other incentives such as free textbooks (at least at the primary level). Private

schools offer ‘quality’ education to elite children in highly resourced classrooms

through the medium of English. The outcomes for these children, who also have

acquisition-rich home environments, are higher levels of proficiency in English

compared to those children studying in poorly resourced classrooms who have little or

no exposure to English outside the 30-35 minute English class every day in school.

Thus the two kinds of school systems, public and private, are distinguishable by their

quality of standards and learner achievement, particularly in terms of the extent of

their ability to use English for oral and written communication. With the level of

proficiency in English being a major indicator of social class, quality of educational

standards and learning outcomes, it is not surprising that for many people there is a

fuzzy boundary between being educated and knowing English (see also Ramanathan

2005). Therefore, the general aspiration of most parents is to provide English-

medium education for their children to improve their future life chances.

(In response to this popular demand for English, recently the number of so-called

‘English medium’ schools has mushroomed, even in the rural areas of Pakistan.

Parents prefer to send their children to these private schools, which do not offer high

quality education, in the hope that their children will learn English. Literacy in

English and the ability to interact confidently in the language are perceived to have

more value than, for example, learning basic concepts in Mathematics and Science.)

The huge promise of English as a ‘world language’ for economic and personal

development seems to be a major driving force for the younger generation’s desire to

learn English in Pakistan. Literacy in English is considered a pre-requisite, similar to

ICT skills, for participating in the current trend of globalisation and becoming part of

the global village. For example, Rehman (1999), in his survey of student attitudes

towards English in different school types in Pakistan, found that the desire to learn

English occurred amongst students from all school types including the deeni

madrassah (religious schools) which represent the most conservative element of

Pakistani society. Similarly, Mansoor’s case study of language planning in higher

education in Pakistan (2005) provided further evidence of an overwhelming ‘need’ for

learning English amongst Pakistani students in tertiary education.

It should be noted that the existing proficiency level in English of school and

university graduates does not match this popular demand for English in Pakistan.

This raises an important question : Is the current provision for the teaching-learning of

English adequate to meet this growing demand for English in education in Pakistan.


(We need to remember that higher education in Pakistan, particularly in public sector

institutions, is considered to be a right for everyone, not a privilege for the selected

few.) This issue is explored in the following section.

Enablers : A study of the current provision for the teaching-learning of English

in higher education in Pakistan

As we saw above, there exists in Pakistan an insatiable desire to learn English for

individual and national development. How can the goal of English for All be

achieved? To what extent is the current provision for the teaching-learning of English

sufficient for the masses to learn English (which is often their third or fourth

language)? In this section, I will report the findings of a research study commissioned

by the National Committee on English and funded by the Higher Education

Commission as part of its ELT reform project (Shamim & Tribble 2005). The study

was conducted in collaboration with the British Council and the Aga Khan University

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi, Pakistan. The author was the lead

researcher for this study.

The objectives of the study were twofold:

a) to review and evaluate the English language teaching capacity of a national sample

of general and professional universities; and

b) to make recommendations for the reorganisation of English language teaching

departments in public sector institutions of higher education in Pakistan.

A two-stage research design was used. In the first stage, a survey of the current

provision for the teaching-learning of English was conducted in a nation-wide sample

of public sector universities. In the second stage, case studies were conducted of three

selected institutions to understand, in depth, how the current organisation of English

language teaching impacts on a) the allocation and utilisation of resources for

teaching English, and b) teaching, learning and assessment practices for English in

these institutions. This chapter reports only the results of the nation-wide survey.

The sample for the survey comprised 21 public sector universities located in various

regions of Pakistan. Overall, 3,552 learners in these universities responded to a

questionnaire that was administered to them on a cohort basis in English classes that

were selected using pre-defined criteria. A total of 84 teachers also responded to the

teachers’ version of the same questionnaire. The aim was to get both student and

teacher perspectives on various aspects of the teaching-learning of English in the

sample institutions. In addition, the Head of Department in each university was

interviewed using a structured interview schedule. The data from the general

universities was analysed separately from that of the professional universities, for

comparative purposes.

Major findings of the study are discussed in the following paragraphs.


Socio-economic profile

The socio-economic profile of teachers and learners in both the general and the

professional universities is largely similar. The majority of teachers do not have

formal qualifications or training in English language teaching. Few teachers engage

in ongoing professional development activities or dialogue with the wider ELT

community through membership of teachers’ organisations or by presenting papers at

ELT conferences at home and abroad. Fewer than one quarter of the teachers in the

sample had one or more publications in the field.

English language programmes

English language courses are offered mainly at the undergraduate level but there are

also some courses in post-graduate programmes in certain departments such as

Business and Management Sciences. In the general universities, the undergraduate

English programmes are normally managed by the Department of English in each

institution. However, visiting teachers are hired to teach English, since the core

business of the English departments is perceived to be the teaching of English

literature to English majors. There is usually a prescribed syllabus for teaching

English at the undergraduate level. In the professional universities and in the

postgraduate departments offering English language programmes in the general

universities, where there are no core English teaching lecturers, the English language

programme is managed by the department concerned or by the department or faculty

of Social Sciences, if there is one. In such cases, teachers design the curriculum for

the English courses themselves. The assessment practices in all cases focus on

assessing content knowledge such as ‘major barriers to communication’, or

‘characteristics of a good paragraph’ instead of language skills.

Educational resources

In terms of physical provision, the findings of the study indicate that the majority of

learners study English sitting in rows in large classes. The normal duration of the

English programme is 48 hours or one semester during the first year of their study

programme. Very little use is made of educational technology, even where it is

available in the institution. Students are given few opportunities to develop academic

literacy since teaching and learning focus mainly on getting good grades in the

content-based examination. Additionally, there are few expectations that learners will

use English in the classroom. Similarly, there is only a low level of feedback, both

oral and written, on assigned written work. Thus opportunities for learning English to

the high levels of proficiency required both for higher education and professional

work are quite limited. It is not surprising, then, that there is a general sense of

dissatisfaction with the current level of English proficiency of the graduates of public

sector universities.


Teachers’ and learners’ assessment of the current programmes

Surprisingly, we found that the majority of learners rated their current English

language courses highly in terms of meeting their future needs. Similarly, more than

50% of teachers agreed or strongly agreed that the current English language courses

would help students in meeting future needs. This apparently optimistic picture could

be the result of two things : a) teachers’ and learners’ limited experience of alternative

pedagogies and assessment practices, and b) a focus on gaining high grades in English

as short-term goals for success in their respective educational programmes.

Unequal inputs, unequal outputs

A comparison of learners’ socio-economic status with their English language scores in

the most recent public examination revealed that learners in the higher income bracket

(upper third of the population) consistently outperformed learners in the lower-income

bracket (lower two-thirds of the population).

Family Income

41,000 and above

0.0 20.0 40.0 60.0 80.0 100.0

31,000 – 40,000

21,000 – 30,000

10,000 – 20,000

less than 10,000

40% and below

41% - 50%

51% - 60%

61% - 70%

71% - 80%

81% and above

Percentage of students in family income groups gaining examination scores

Examination Score

Figure 1: Students’ family income (in Pakistani rupees) and

proficiency in English (most recent public examination scores),

adapted from Shamim & Tribble 2005

The positive correlation of high family income with students’ higher levels of

proficiency in English, as seen in Figure 1, may be attributed to their earlier education

in private English-medium schools compared to students in the lower-income bracket.

(The two-streams of education in Pakistan have already been discussed in an earlier

section.) Similarly, in students’ self-assessment of their current language skills, as


used in the academic domain, the upper group was about twice as heavily represented

in the categories of ‘good’ and excellent’ compared to the lower third of the

population. Hence, there seems to be a positive relationship between students’ socio-

economic status and their proficiency in English, probably due to the difference in

opportunities available outside the classroom in the home and community for learning

and using English. This indicates the urgent need for developing relevant and high

quality English language programmes for learners in public sector universities to

enable them to compete with their more fortunate counterparts.

It was concluded that the need to provide enhanced teaching-learning facilities in

public sector universities cannot be over-emphasised particularly in terms of the huge

demand for English in the employment market (Mansoor et al. 2005) and the

relatively low levels of proficiency of graduates from public sector higher education

institutions in Pakistan.

In public sector schools, English is mainly taught using the grammar-translation

method through Urdu and/or the local language in crowded and under-resourced

classrooms (Shamim & Allen 2000). In private schools, while English is ‘officially’

the medium of instruction, bilingual discourse is commonly used in the classroom.

(See also Cleghorn & Rollnick (2002) for similar findings from African classrooms.)

However, as the use of one or more shared home languages is not legitimised, the

teachers do not admit to using them in the classroom.

Issues and challenges

Three main issues can be identified : the quality of education, the tension between

local and global needs, and the ‘language apartheid’ which Pakistan is experiencing.

Quality & standards of achievement

English medium education is widely assumed to be synonymous with high quality

education. Is it, therefore, surprising that parents prefer an English medium education

for their children? This can be seen in the proliferation of private English-medium

schools even in the remote areas of Pakistan (Harlech-Jones et al. 2005).

Both the National Education Policy (1998) and the more recent national report on

development of education (Government of Pakistan 2004a) are silent on the issue of

language-in-education. Government notifications are issued from time to time

instructing public sector schools to start teaching English from grade I. This decision,

as mentioned earlier, is taken by all elected governments soon after they come into

power as a political gesture rather than as an expression of their political will to

provide opportunities for gaining widespread literacy in English. The decision is

taken without a feasibility study (which should consist of at least a survey of the

current proficiency of teachers and learners and the provision for the teaching-

learning of English at different levels). Additionally, the decision to teach English is

not informed by the current state of research in this area.

Unsurprisingly, there is an ever widening gap between the ‘unwritten’ language

policy and practice of the teaching-learning of English in Pakistan. This has led to a


situation whereby the majority of school and university graduates from public sector

institutions enter the job market with only limited literacy skills in English.

Tension between local and global needs

Language is a marker of identity and a tool for representing local values and culture.

On the one hand, the right to study one’s own language is now considered a basic

human right (cf. Segota 2001). On the other hand, there is an urgent felt need,

particularly amongst the younger generation, to identify with the global world culture.

Universities in Pakistan are also faced with the challenge of achieving internationally

recognised academic excellence and status, mainly through the medium of English,

and serving the needs of the local population. The patterns of language use in society

point to the use of Urdu as the lingua franca in Pakistan. Urdu is used by most people

in rural contexts mainly in addition to their local language. Similarly, while English

is used for official written documentation and communication, Urdu is mainly used

for oral interaction in government offices. In the cities, only a small part of the

population, the educated elite, use English (or English and an indigenous language)

for their everyday communication. The challenge is to maintain an appropriate

balance in the choice of language-in-education amongst individual, societal, and

national development needs.

A state of language apartheid

In Pakistan, familiarity with and use of English are indicators of social class and

educational and family background. For example, the terms ‘Urdu-medium’ and

‘English-medium’ in Pakistan are heavily loaded with economic and socio-cultural

connotations. Hence their use denotes more than just the medium of instruction

through which a person has studied in school or in an institution of higher education.

In fact, a person with an ‘English-medium’ education is considered superior in all

dimensions compared to someone with an Urdu-medium educational background.

Thus we seem to be moving towards a state of language apartheid.

The challenges faced by language planners, policy makers and practitioners in

Pakistan are many. These include :

• Achieving quality in education for all, irrespective of the medium of education;

• Balancing language needs and provision for the teaching-learning of English and

other languages for local, national and global use; and,

• Combating linguistically defined social stratification.

We must remember that Pakistan is not alone in facing these challenges. These and

similar challenges abound in the majority of African countries and many other

countries in Asia (see, for example, Vavrus 2002, Brock-Utne et al. 2003 and

Mansoor et al. 2004). In the next section, I will take a brief look at how some nations

of the world have tried to address these challenges.

Multilingualism : Towards a possible solution

A current trend identifiable in policy documents in many countries seems to be that of

multilingualism. Multilingualism is espoused as the preferred approach to language


policy-making for recognising and celebrating linguistic diversity and for intercultural

communication. For example, in India the need for the three-language formula of

state, national and international language has once again been reiterated by the

National Focus Group on Indian languages (NCERT 2005). Similarly, there is a

growing awareness, amongst the more recently established central Asian states such

as Kyrgyzstan, of the need for multilingual education for increased interethnic

understanding (Korth & Schulter n.d.). This is in sharp contrast to the policy of

having just one national language as a marker of unity and nationhood, prevalent

amongst nations in South Asia and Africa during the early years of their

independence.

UNESCO’s recent position paper titled ‘Education in a multilingual world’ (2003)

urges a change in attitudes towards multilingualism as it is a reality in many nations of

the world. At the same time, the paper highlights the complexities involved in

imparting education through multiple languages :

Education in many countries of the world takes place in multilingual contexts.

[In these countries] multilingualism is more a way of life than a problem to be

solved. The challenge is for education systems to adapt to these complex

realities and provide a quality education which takes into consideration

learners’ needs, whilst balancing these at the same time with social, cultural

and political demands. (UNESCO 2003:12)

Interestingly, even in Europe, during the last two decades, efforts to facilitate trade,

travel and interaction amongst the nations within the European Community have led

to the development of policy guidelines favouring plurilingualism (differentiated from

multilingualism mainly in terms of its broader view of the purposes of learning more

than one language). The aim of language education, according to this view, is no

longer to :

achieve mastery of one, two or even three languages, each taken in isolation,

with the ‘ideal native-speaker’ model. Instead the aim is to develop a

linguistic repertory in which all linguistic abilities have a place. This implies,

of course, that the languages offered in educational institutions should be

diversified and students given the opportunity to develop a ‘plurilingual

competence. (Council of Europe 2001:5).

However, we would do well to remember that English is the language of instruction in

only three European states : the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta (UNESCO 2007).

And even in these countries the indigenous languages of Welsh, Gaelic, Irish and

Maltese are also used as languages of instruction.

Policy implications

This analysis of drivers and enablers for the teaching-learning of English in Pakistan,

on the one hand, highlights current perceptions about the role and status of English in

individual and national development in developing countries. On the other, it gives

rise to two important questions for consideration by language planners and policy

makers :


1. Is English here to stay? If yes, how can we, in developing country contexts,

strategically plan for managing English for All with limited resources?

2. In order to achieve our goal of Education for All whose language should be

selected and for whose development?

The first question is a simple one addressing the pragmatics of the current situation as

it exists in many developing countries of the world. That is to say, the need for

English is far beyond the current resources available for the teaching and learning of

the language. If we agree, through debate and discussion at local and national levels,

that literacy in English is vital for individual and national development, then it must

have high priority on the list of educational reforms for any government.

In fact, a growing trend is to go beyond the basic question of whether to teach or not

to teach English. The preferred question now seems to be whether all subjects should

be taught through the medium of English. This is reflected in a 2005 debate

sponsored by The Guardian, a leading UK newspaper, and Macmillan Education, a

major UK and international publishing house.2

Content and Language Integrated Learning (Clil) and the use of English have moved

from experimental research to the centre of global education. As pressure grows on

governments and education planners to raise English language levels, the promise of

teaching the language while teaching other subjects is hard to resist. However, at the

same time we need to consider whether Clil is a Trojan horse which will drive English

‘ever deeper into the heart of national education systems’, as one of the participants in

the Guardian-Macmillan debate wondered.

At the beginning of this chapter we noted that Brock-Utne, a leading advocate of

education through indigenous languages in African countries, asks ‘Education for all

– in whose language?’ She also asks (in the title of a chapter in Brock-Utne 2000)

‘Whose language and for whose development?’. In this way, she challenges the view

that English should be used as a medium of instruction particularly in early years.

Accordingly, she raises issues of learning and intellectual dependency through the use

of English in education in Africa and other developing countries. Several educators

from Africa, as in the 7th

Language and Development Conference, have voiced their

concerns about using English as the medium of instruction. In particular, they urge us

to consider carefully the effects on personal and national development of using the

former colonial languages in education :

As long as African countries continue to educate the continent’s future leaders

primarily through foreign languages, they will remain dependent. Education

for liberation and self reliance must begin with the use of languages that do

not impede the acquisition of knowledge. This is a challenge for the 21st

century. (Roy-Campbell 1998 cited in Brock-Utne 2000:173)

Similarly, Fanfunwa (1990 cited in Brock-Utne 2000:153), questioning the use of an

imposed foreign language for communication instead of a ‘familiar’ language,

postulates a relationship between underdevelopment and the use of a foreign language

as the official language of a given country. Though there is no research evidence to


substantiate his claim, the relationship between language and development is certainly

worthy of attention from linguists and researchers in the field.

A careful consideration of these two questions tells us that it is neither politically

correct nor possible for education systems dependent on large amounts of money from

international donor agencies in developing countries such as Pakistan to reverse the

current trend of promoting literacy in English, similar to literacy in ICT skills, for

development. As long as English remains the dominant language of power, a

gatekeeper to higher level jobs and a ‘window to the world of opportunities’ at home

and abroad, all the research evidence in the world will not convince parents of the

usefulness of imparting education to their children in the mother tongue. A more

pragmatic approach to addressing the growing state of language apartheid between

English-medium and Urdu-medium education in Pakistan would be to develop

bilingual programmes for achieving proficiency in both English and Urdu. A second

step should be to strive for a balance between felt needs and available provision for

the teaching-learning of English based on research evidence. Finally, debate and

dialogue should be initiated with the involvement of linguists, policy-makers,

practitioners and the public media on language rights and the relationship between

language and development, with the aim of working towards a practicable language

policy for individual and national development.

Conclusion

I would like to conclude with two questions that I hope will be taken up for discussion

elsewhere.

1. Do we, in developing country contexts, really have the right to choose our own

language for development? If not, how can people in developing country contexts be

enabled to choose one or more languages for individual, societal and national

development?

2. How can coherence be achieved between language policy and its

implementation in developing countries?

The first question seeks to initiate a debate on linguistic rights in developing countries

and indicates the need for empowerment in determining the choice of language for

development. Linguistic rights, or more specific to this discussion, the right to the

choice of language for education is meaningless and turns into a symbolic act if there

is lack of coherence between the language policy and its implementation plan, as is

illustrated by Taylor (2002) through his review of language-in-education programmes

in Estonia and Africa. The second question, therefore, aims to remind us - language

planners, policy makers, linguists and practitioners - of our responsibility to take up

the challenge of drafting viable language polices and workable implementation plans

for language-in-education programmes that aim to promote individual, societal and

national development.


Notes 1 See Pennycook (1999) for a similar discussion of language in relation to development.

2 For details, see www.guardian.co.uk/guardianweekly/story/0.12674.1395532.00.html.

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Strand 2 : Language in critical and post-

conflict contexts

Kennett Language, disasters, development 92

Chapter 8

Language, disasters and development

Psyche Kennett

Introduction

The Palestinian intifada, the war in Afghanistan, Nine Eleven and the invasion of Iraq are all disasters (albeit of human making) that have contributed to the rise of Arab satellite TV and, in particular, the station Al Jazeera, thus bringing modern standard Arabic as a real, spoken language on a daily basis to fifty million viewers from Qatar to Western Sahara. For the first time, current events and an emerging Arab identity are the property of everyone, not just the privilege of an educated few. No-one could have predicted the tsunami on 26 December 2004, the Indian Ocean's own Ground Zero, which killed over 300,000 people from Indonesia to the east coast of Africa and made millions more homeless. Language plays a key role in this disaster too, in the management – or rather mismanagement – of the recovery process. It is unlikely, in Sri Lanka at least, that something as positive as Al Jazeera will emerge. From a traditional post-Hiroshima stance, disasters lead to development, a chance to rebuild and upgrade. More recent research and experience shows that development is just as likely to increase vulnerability to further disaster as to decrease it. Within this matrix I would like to explore to what extent language issues increase or decrease vulnerability to disaster, at the same time emphasising the importance of staying within the positive realm. The issues which I will present are those related to the introduction of the new Arabic and English curriculum standards for the State of Qatar as a direct result of the conflict in Iraq, and the role of English as the medium of the recovery process in Sri Lanka as a direct result of the tsunami.

Background

On Sunday 26 December, as the waters of the second wave to hit Sri Lanka surged around them, an Irishman and a Frenchman crouched on the roof of one of the few structures left standing on that particular stretch of beach, praying that the foundations would hold. Neither spoke. Refrigerators, plastic chairs, branches and all manner of debris swirled around them, and then suddenly, a German. They hauled him out, fortunately unhurt. Still no-one spoke. Finally the German said, ‘I knew this would happen. At the beginning of the year my business went bust. Then my wife left me. Now this.’ I do not wish to make light of the fact that nearly 300,000 people lost their lives and millions more their homes and livelihoods on that fateful morning when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck. But that rooftop exchange encapsulates what has happened in the post-tsunami recovery process in northeast Sri Lanka : people seemingly united by language, English language, yet divided by their own personal perspectives. Three


hundred new non-governmental organisations flocked to the island; their representatives were visitors in a foreign land, making reality their foreigner’s reality to send home to the people who had paid for it. In the process they lost sight of who their beneficiaries were, driven by the need to spend the money and satisfy the general public who had donated it, rather than the Sri Lankan coastal communities it was intended for. By 27 December 2004, tsunami-affected communities had stopped asking for mosquito coils and cooking pots, sanitary towels and bed sheets, and started asking for information. Primarily they needed information on the disposal of dead bodies and on preventing the spread of cholera. I went to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website and downloaded pages and pages on both topics. There was no simple, translatable, one sheet, photocopiable page to be had. Yet surely the disposal of dead bodies and the prevention of the spread of cholera were common to all sudden disasters that kill and displace large numbers of people? It took several hours to encapsulate the information in simple, understandable text and several more to get friends to put it into Sinhala, but by the next day it was copied and distributed to all the communities I had links with in the south. People’s relief to read that they couldn’t catch diseases from the dead bodies, nor should they burn them, was palpable. It gave them the breathing space they needed to focus on the living. Why was it that WHO were unable to do this work themselves? What was the government thinking when they broadcast the same information on television? Everyone’s television sets were at the bottom of the sea. In the weeks that followed the tsunami, a Korean medical team turned up in Hambantota in the south west and an Italian medical team in Kinniya, in the north east. Neither team had ever worked in Sri Lanka before, nor could they speak English, let alone Sinhala for Hambantota or Tamil for Kinniya. Outside one camp, where a Swiss construction company was helping build temporary shelters, the company’s name board spelled out in large black letters, ‘Hovel Construction’. Language on the surface, and all types of communication underlying it, play an essential, if undervalued role, in disasters and development. Many of the ideas expressed here on information exchange, the role of the media, the use of English, and the reduction of vulnerability in affected communities may not be new. However, the sudden onset of disaster - and the hothouse environment it breeds in response - require a re-examination of approaches and ways of working and a need to think more in terms of sustainable development from the inside rather than immediate relief from the outside. Disasters in the media

From Katrina to Rita to Wilma, from the Indian Ocean tsunami to the earthquake in Kashmir, natural disasters and the ensuing humanitarian relief efforts dominated the headlines in 2004-2005. Natural disasters make good news stories. The sheer scale of the Indian Ocean tsunami, its sudden onset, the fact that the death toll kept growing and growing, the western links with tourists and tourist destinations, the high visibility, the novelty, the watery horror of the sea rising up in the way that it did, the Christmas holiday timing, and the relatively simple relationship between cause and


result, made it and sustained it as breaking news for longer than any other story in 2005. In three weeks US$5 billion had been pledged and a second tsunami of international humanitarian organisations had been unleashed on Banda Aceh and Sri Lanka. Very few of these organisations had ever worked in Asia before. News is driven by commercial television ratings. Newsrooms are part of a larger television network and, in this environment, impartiality and ethical in-depth reporting give way to sensational stories and ‘infotainment’. When this trend is led by CNN and BBC World the process happens in English and the focus tends to be on former colonial countries where English is already spoken. In the same way, money from the Arabic world went to Pakistan in the aftermath of the Kashmir earthquake via the Arabic satellite channels. Infotainment limits humanitarian appeals. The tsunami story was very different from Darfur, or what was happening in the Democratic Republic of Congo where more than ten times the number of people have died.1 Complex, chronic, conflict-related disasters like these do not make good news, and so the money flows to the seemingly more straightforward destinations in South and South East Asia. Now, in the aftermath of the tsunami, relief is transforming into rehabilitation and development, and longer term complexities - the fall out of too much relief - are making post-tsunami recovery in the conflict-affected North East Province of Sri Lanka equally unnewsworthy. Unlike Aceh, where the process has expedited the signing of peace accords, Sri Lanka’s ceasefire has been weakened and community differences accentuated. The stalled post-tsunami operational management strategy (PTOMS), which was signed by the central government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and which should have strengthened the peace process, is now in litigation. Sinhalese Buddhist MPs, activists and monks, promoting an extreme nationalist Buddhist agenda, will ensure it stays stalled. How did this happen?

Post-tsunami complexities in Sri Lanka

In December 2004, the Sri Lankan government was virtually bankrupt. International aid money, untied to the normal good governance agenda, wiped Sri Lanka’s debt, and effectively paid for the central government’s war in its own North East Province, a war against its own people. The Sri Lankan rupee was bolstered and the economy looked bright. The huge influx of money followed by high profile visits to non-LTTE areas by Kofi Annan, George Bush Sr., Bill Clinton and the US Navy, gave the President and her nationalist Sinhalese Buddhist coalition government unmerited validation and support. Buddhist hate speeches in the press against civil society peace builders working in the conflict-affected, tsunami-affected areas deflected attention from the government’s failures in the tsunami recovery process. The government’s centrally controlled, anti-poor resettlement process involved the creation of a controversial coastal buffer zone where no-one was allowed to build.2 In the name of ecology and future disaster preparedness, the government was clearing the coastline of unsightly fishing villages, resettling people inland without access to the beach or their livelihoods. This was interpreted by many as paving the way for large scale tourist development. Further,


there was the question of unfair tsunami aid disbursement. Wealthier or more assisted Sinhalese communities in the southwest have rebuilt while many communities in the north east remain in inappropriate temporary shelters constructed mainly of corrugated metal without a shade tree or the possibility of land settlement in sight. Civil rights to property, tenure and non-discrimination have been eroded in the process. Associated with this is the government’s insistence on centralising the aid flow, and making international organisations, knowingly or unknowingly, support the central line agencies rather than the devolved local authorities. This process has worked effectively to recentralise the North East province and make the likelihood of devolution as a first step towards the signing of a peace agreement even more remote. The stalling of the PTOMS is part of this recentralisation. The 300 new international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) which rushed to Sri Lanka within the first month of the disaster brought with them more funds (and therefore more power) than the more experienced, more conflict-sensitive bi-lateral organisations which had been working in the northeast of Sri Lanka for the past decade. This sudden influx of mainly inexperienced people with too much money, under huge pressure to please their respective publics, produced hothouse conditions for growing ‘worst practice’. There has been ugly competition between international organisations to win the ‘best’ humanitarian prizes – housing resettlement contracts and the provision of fishing boats. The result has been too many boats and houses in easily accessible areas, too few for remote communities. Over-fishing is now becoming a problem and there is consequent disruption of local communities. Where once four men shared a boat, now all four have their own. Where once a house cost just over a thousand dollars to construct, now more than double that amount is expected. Unethical practices, gross inexperience and disregard for basic ‘do no harm’ principles (Anderson 1999) have led to inflation in local rents, salaries, and building materials. Unethical poaching of best staff from local government and community-based organisations by international organisations has weakened already understaffed local authorities. Very little of the recovery work has been channelled through these authorities even though they are responsible for coordinating the recovery process at community level. Aid to tsunami-affected communities has created a huge disparity between tsunami-displaced people and war-displaced people, but most international NGO budgets are fixed and extravagant. They can be spent only on housing for the tsunami-affected, but this housing tends to be very lavish compared to what the conflict-affected communities have received from longer term development projects. In many cases, however, these budgets do not take account of the wider context; construction goes ahead without proper attention to town planning or provision for roads, sewage, or solid waste disposal. Lack of standardisation of house design accentuates community competition and jealousy along the coast. Most importantly, local efforts in terms of relief, rehabilitation and peace building have been drowned in the tsunami of international aid. Competition amongst international organisations is one thing. But disempowering local communities and local authorities by taking away from them the opportunity for local ownership in the


peace and rehabilitation process is in direct contradiction to the precepts of humanitarian aid.

Disasters and development

Disasters can lead to development. In the case of Aceh, peace accords were signed on 15 August 2005 as a direct result of the tsunami. In the case of Qatar, the news agency Al Jazeera, set up in 1996, has grown steadily in popularity due to the conflict in the Middle East, since it provides informed news and views across the Arab world in an unprecedented way.3 Also in Qatar, as a direct result of the Iraq war, the Qatar national curriculum embraced a secular approach to the teaching of Arabic; a first in any Gulf State. In Figure 1, Aceh and Qatar currently sit in the lower right hand quadrant (‘Disasters increase development opportunities’). Movement from the bottom left hand quadrant (‘Disasters reduce development opportunities’) to the top right hand quadrant (‘Development reduces vulnerability’) is possible; this can be illustrated by the examples of Thailand and India where the governments refused international aid after the tsunami. The recovery programmes in those nations were thus well coordinated and had well-focussed outcomes.

Development Realm

Development increases vulnerability

Development reduces vulnerability

Disasters reduce development opportunities

Disasters increase development opportunities

Negative Realm

Disaster Realm

Positiv

e Realm

Figure 1 : The development-disaster matrix

The North East Province of Sri Lanka, however, currently sits in the lower left hand quadrant (‘Disasters reduce development opportunities’). Sri Lanka suffered from a case of ‘too many cooks’ contributing to the relief and recovery process and the North East Province has become a war zone. If there is the political will to achieve and maintain a ceasefire, Sri Lanka could reposition itself in the bottom right hand quadrant (‘Disasters increase development opportunities’). But if uncoordinated national and international relief efforts continue to weaken the ceasefire, then repositioning will be in the top left hand quadrant (‘Development increases vulnerability’).


In short, there are courses of action which can be taken after a disaster has taken place that can either propel the affected community forward or set it back even further. In the face of disaster, it is important for aid to stay within the positive realm, to work in ways that ensure reduction of vulnerability and an increase of development opportunities. This must be done by working much more from within, through local people, in their own language, with their own agenda. At the same time, communities need a more focussed rationale for the role of language4, the dissemination of information in the recovery process, and a better understanding of the benefits which advocacy and interventions from outside can bring. Education reform in Qatar

The American bombing of Al Jazeera’s offices in Kabul and Baghdad did not stop them broadcasting, and the news group has gone on to become a media phenomenon. Arab unity has become a reality through Arabic language and Arab reporting. Another repercussion of disaster which involved language and development was Qatar’s decision to rewrite its national school curriculum and secularise the teaching of Arabic. Having hosted the Americans during the Iraq war, Qatar was given assistance from the American rightwing think-tank, Rand, to develop a curriculum standards approach for schools which would incorporate English as a first language from kindergarten (nursery school) and secularise the teaching of Arabic. As the project progressed, Qatar’s Supreme Education Council marginalised Rand as a partner but followed the advice of Rand’s implementing partner, CfBT, to adapt the standards from English as a first language to English as a second language. At the same time, the English standards for literacy and critical thinking in the curriculum were followed through in the Arabic standards. This meant a whole new way of teaching and learning Arabic, so that first language education could be used as a tool for critical thinking and for information transfer rather than – as had traditionally been the case – for the appreciation of literature or religion. Until the new curriculum standards were introduced, the Arabic language was taught in Qatar through texts from the Koran. Without the existence of graded texts in modern standard Arabic, the usual literacy standards for recognising different text types (narrative, factual recount, discursive and persuasive texts) or for introducing core vocabulary according to frequency, phonics and spelling rules, for example, could not be applied. This development for Arabic was a first. Curriculum standards had previously been introduced in Egyptian schools but left Arabic and religious studies untouched. In Oman, meanwhile, curriculum standards were introduced as a separate document, unrelated to the existing textbooks or examinations, which remained unchanged. Qatar’s quiet revolution was achieved by setting standards for Arabic without stipulating the texts in which they were to be exemplified, thus opening the door for curriculum developers to choose whichever texts they wanted. With an overt stipulation that critical thinking was to be encouraged, the Arabic standards, by their very nature, exclude the use of the Koran. As it would be highly unusual for primary and secondary school students to exercise critical thinking skills on the Koran – not only because of tradition but also because of the level and register of the language


used in religious texts – secular texts were needed instead. Parents were happy with this approach and were reassured by the fact that religious education had as many periods a week as Arabic in the school timetable. It was a win-win language and development situation. Polarisation of recipients and donors in post-tsunami Sri Lanka

The examples drawn from Sri Lanka and Qatar are quite different, both in terms of the types of disasters that occurred and the positive and negative developments to which they gave rise. In Sri Lanka, media reporting, information flow and the over-supply of relief resources to affected areas have polarised donors and recipients. According to Walter (2005), an over-reliance on hi-tech information solutions is insufficient; these must also be supplemented by locally appropriate low-tech information delivery methods. International hi-tech solutions to disaster include aerial views, early warning systems, internet research, management information systems, and the English media. But unless the data generated by these systems are communicated in comprehensible and appropriate ways (for example, through neighbourhood support systems) then the information is collected in vain. Further, international organisations come in with preconceptions, with the needs of donors and the public they represent foremost on their agendas. They embody a desire for results and stories for viewers, and in this way they overlook the real needs of the beneficiaries on the ground. They are outsiders and their reporting distances the communities which they seek to ‘help’, rather than bringing them closer. They continue to view disaster-affected people as victims. They work, essentially, in an undemocratic way, often going for the quick fix and missing less obvious potential beneficiaries, participants in more complex situations. Competition with other donors erodes their respect for host communities’ needs and views. Donors are consumers of information but do not see it as their responsibility to give back information. They are givers of aid but do not see it as their responsibility to take on local ways of working. In this way the international organisations accumulate power for themselves. They work to increase their own dignity and kudos, and to provide feel-good stories for their publics back home. Local, low-tech solutions to disaster include insider views and in-depth understanding of contexts and processes. These can be generated only through communication with local people, that is, people who are part of the affected community, not simply nationals from the capital who speak the local language. Working from the inside, such an approach turns people from victims to citizens with rights to determine decisions that affect them. It is essentially a democratic process. This approach empowers communities rather than international organisations, and prevents erosion of dignity. It builds coordination around local authorities and internal mechanisms rather than the parallel structures of central government or the rehabilitation projects themselves. It gives back ownership to communities and makes them responsible for their own recovery. In so doing it begins to eliminate the underlying causes of vulnerability in the first place, helping communities not only to recover from the present disaster but also to become less vulnerable to future ones. The insider


approach builds good governance by strengthening local authorities. It ensures civil rights to property tenure and non-discrimination through negotiated resettlement plans. It works towards economic recovery by linking resettlement to income generation opportunities that suit the under-represented and more vulnerable members of the affected community.

Local approaches to disaster recovery International approaches to disaster recovery

Insiders Outsiders

Local languages English Detailed understanding of context, process,

participation, reality

Pre-conceptions and perceived rather than actual needs

Demand based Supply based Low-tech information systems Hi-tech information systems

Listening Telling Giving information Taking information

Democratic Undemocratic Process-based, leading to long term reduction

of vulnerability

Quick-fix results, leading to increased vulnerability

Citizens with rights and dignity Helpless victims without dignity

Reducing vulnerability to future disasters Increasing dependency and vulnerability to future disasters

Power for the community Power for the organisation

Figure 2 : Local versus international approaches to disaster recovery

If international agencies are to work with local communities effectively in the aftermath of disasters, they need to adopt stronger policies on language, information exchange, rights based approaches and mainstreaming good practice. Despite the lack of time and the pressure to respond swiftly with its immediate focus on hardware and infrastructure, relief agencies need to work more as development agencies. Figure 2 indicates how agencies need to blend approaches and resources in order to combine the bigger picture with local needs. In this way, international and local organisations can work together to provide relief first, followed by rehabilitation and then development on a demand-driven basis rather than a supply-driven one. With such an approach, relief lays a stronger foundation for development and development becomes more sustainable. English for intermediaries not imperialists

Providing relief in English in Sri Lanka, where English is indeed a link language between warring communities, is better than turning up in Hambantota and speaking Korean or turning up in Kinniya and speaking Italian. However, to conduct a real needs analysis, to listen to each community’s different needs, to provide psycho-social care, to make the relief process rights-based and democratic, and to provide advocacy, international organisations need to have a clearly thought-out language policy where local language plays a much stronger role. This issue is not new to the Language and Development debate. It involves a wider understanding of the role of language in development, a need to know when best to function in the mother tongue and when best to use English. For English language


practitioners, we need to know why we are teaching and promoting the learning of English. We need to go beyond the popularist and simplistic argument (‘because parents and governments want it’); this implies having a clear understanding as to which processes are better conducted in the mother tongue and which need to be conducted in a second (European) language. None of this is rocket science, but without making language policy amongst international organisations explicit, there is unwitting compliance with the hegemony of the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and Washington. English language use should be clearly demarcated as a tool for intermediaries not as a tool for new imperialism. English has its place in the recovery process. It helps development actors coordinate information and intervention. It gives local people a voice in the international aid forum which will impact on their community. At present, for example, local government officials sit on the housing committees for the 432 post-tsunami resettlements in Sri Lanka. Very few of these officials are confident in English and so they never open their mouths in committee meetings. From the confines of their self-imposed silence they watch the Colombo NGOs, the international organisations, and the Sinhala-speaking central government housing agencies make decisions in English – the common language – for the communities which they are supposed to represent. Even without the representation of the internationals, English is the language of senior management in Sri Lanka’s public service. For the provincial government to interact successfully with the central government and negotiate the fair distribution of aid, unhampered by ethnic division, they must do so in English. English as a tool also helps the public to audit international inputs. It helps public servants coordinate, monitor and evaluate international inputs and forces international organisations to become transparent. At community level it helps beneficiaries audit their own public servants as effective coordinators and intermediaries. As such, English makes good governance a two-way process. For organisations such as the LTTE, who, in the event of peace, will move into provincial government, English is essential for them to achieve a credible shift from terrorist organisation to mechanism of good governance. At the moment the LTTE are beginning to question the limitations of their own Tamil-only language policy. When they do write in English, to get their message across to the international community, their writing is shrill and full of proselytising rhetoric. Rather than persuade, they antagonise. Their English discourse needs to reflect a new, more mainstream role, repositioning themselves as democratically elected local authorities, not revolutionaries with a mission. Without the right language to cover such a transition, the LTTE will not move successfully into government. Conclusion

Just as there is a move afoot to make relief organisations include the ‘right to information’ as part of their support package, so it is time to consider recipient communities’ ‘right to language’ in times of relief and rehabilitation. Language plays a strong role in disasters and development. In most cases this role is unexpected or


un-thought-through. For example, the United States continues to shoot itself in the foot by relying on English in Iraq and failing to have an articulate Arabic-speaking spokesperson to represent its policies on Al Jazeera and the like. In the development context, international organisations need to rationalise and balance their use of English and local languages in order to include and empower the people they have come to assist. Disasters provide extreme conditions under which it is possible to re-examine approaches. Inputs and activities are force-fed in an emergency; weaknesses in approach quickly come to the fore. It is time to mainstream good practice, including insisting on the use of local languages for emergency situation needs analyses and turning aid into a demand driven process. It is also time for aid and development agencies to engage in a measured and well thought through policy for English, and to overtly state it as such. In this way English becomes an effective intermediary tool for development, not an imperialist plot nor the default option of incompetents.

Notes 1 According to Chris McGreal, writing in the Guardian newspaper on 15 November 2006, the estimated loss of life in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the preceding ten years was four million. 2 The buffer zone policy was very widely perceived to be anti-poor and led to widespread protests. The regulation was withdrawn in 2006. 3 Previously, the only international Arab-medium television service was provided by Saudi Arabia. This was pro-American and very rightwing. Al Jazeera, in contrast, upholds the precepts of good journalism while presenting a more liberal, two-sided view of the Arab world. Its reporting includes interviews with controversial political figures and shows images of the destruction caused by the American war. 4 This would mean, for example, insisting on the local language being used for emergency healthcare services from the outset, and a policy of inclusion and participation through the use of the local language or interpreters at all times for rehabilitation and community development work thereafter. Although the fundamental right to be able to communicate in one’s own language in order to seek help after a disaster seems unquestionable, surprisingly little attention is given by aid agencies to this issue.

References

Anderson, M.B. 1999. Do No Harm : How Aid Can Support Peace – or War. Boulder, Colorado : Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc. Walter, J. (ed.). 2005. World Disasters Report 2005. Geneva : International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. www.ifrc.org/publicat/wdr2005/contents.asp accessed 30 October 2006.

Dardig English in post-war Sudan 102

Chapter 9

The role of English in the post-war development of Sudan

Mohamed Hassan Dardig

Introduction

The end of war in South Sudan after 45 years of bloodshed and disintegration has

coincided with an age of enormous and unprecedented expansion in scientific,

technical and economic activity on a regional and global scale. The relentless

progress of scientific, technological and economic forces is generating a strong

demand for language to play new roles in communication and development. For

various reasons, the task has largely fallen to English.

Sudan is one of the richest countries in Africa in terms of its cultural and linguistic

diversity : it is estimated to have 134 living languages (Gordon 2005). Of these,

Arabic is the official language and the most widely spoken with about 80% of the

population communicating in it (Abu-Bakr & Abu-Manga 1997). In some parts of the

country, such as the South and the West, Arabic is used as a lingua franca for

economic, political, religious, cultural and social reasons. Hence, Arabic is both an

official and a national language.

In such a linguistically diverse country, languages play a crucial role in cultural and

social identity. Although Arabic is the dominant language, the local languages have

their own unique ethnic, cultural and social characteristics. Speakers of these

languages feel proud of belonging to their ethnic groups (Hurreiz & Bell 1975). The

Constitution (Republic of Sudan 1998: Part I, Article 3) and the more recent

Comprehensive Peace Agreement or CPA (Sudan Tribune 2004) allow the

development of local mother languages. The law permits the local Sudanese

languages to be used as media of instruction in the first and second grades in primary

schools in those regions where they are spoken.

Efforts have been made to maintain and celebrate linguistic diversity in Sudan. But

questions which deserve investigation include the following. How well has policy

concerning local languages been implemented? To what extent does Arabic influence

the local languages? Are they well preserved as ethnic and tribal languages?

In the present chapter, however, our concern is with English. In the context of this

linguistic diversity, what is the role of English in the development of Sudan? Why is

English needed at all? Why should English not Arabic play a developmental role?

What is the official policy concerning English? What is the popular attitude towards

English? Is it positive or negative? These questions are asked in order to stimulate

debate and discussion.


English in the colonial period

English was first brought to Sudan at the time of Anglo-Egyptian colonisation (1898-

1956). The Christian Missions that settled in South Sudan helped spread English

from the 1920s onwards. The Closed Areas Ordinance in the South of Sudan gave

special privileges to the Missions between 1922 and 1948 and strengthened the role of

English in that region. For this reason English was - and indeed still is – spoken

better there than in the North. As a result of British colonialism, English became the

medium of instruction not only in the South but also in the North at all educational

levels. The demand for English expanded particularly after the opening of the Gordon

Memorial College as a higher education institute in the 1930s (Beshir 1969).

Thus English became the medium for education as well as a vehicle for finding

employment in the civil service. Locals who did not speak English had difficulty in

being recruited into the civil service.

English since independence

English thrived and can be said to have reached a peak shortly after Independence in

1956. In 1958 General Ibrahim Abboud carried out the country’s first military coup.

He issued a series of resolutions, one of which decreed the opening of the Closed

Areas in the South. He introduced Arabic as part of the curriculum in the South for

the first time, although English continued to be the medium of instruction throughout

the country. In summary, General Abboud made Arabic the national language but he

maintained English as the medium of instruction. This situation continued until

General Abboud was deposed in 1964 and throughout the following years.

The situation changed again in 1969, when Brigadier Gaafer Numeiry came to power

following a coup. During Numeiry’s regime, which lasted for sixteen years, the

policy towards English fluctuated between positive and negative, in line with frequent

reforms of the cabinet. Nevertheless, Numeiry retained English as the medium of

instruction in the secondary and higher education institutes even though that decision

was fiercely criticised by the Popular Islamic Movement that demanded that Arabic

should be used instead. On the other hand, Numeiry insisted that Arabic should be

used as the medium of instruction at the primary and intermediate levels in the South.

This, then, was the first time that Arabic was used as a medium of instruction in

Sudan since before British colonisation began in 1898.

Although Arabic was the official language, English continued to enjoy special status,

particularly in the South and among the Northern elites. However, at the beginning of

the 1970s, there were complaints about the decreasing standard of English in schools

in both the South and the North (Hurreiz & Bell 1975). At the same time, Southerners

were demanding access to Arabic because of the career opportunities which it offered

them and because, without it, they were unable to pursue their education in the North

(which is the economic and political centre of the country). There were complaints

from Southerners about the standard of Arabic teaching in the region; they felt that

their poor competence in the language compared with the Northerners would hamper

them and put them in an unequal position (Beshir 1968).


Another shift occurred when the Islamic Federation joined the new cabinet in 1975,

during Numeiry’s regime. They managed to introduce Arabic as the medium of

instruction in secondary schools even in the South. This decision was received with

anger in the South because it was felt that this would put people at a disadvantage

when competing with Northerners, especially in the National Certificate and the

entrance examination for higher education institutes (Hurreiz & Bell 1975). Despite

the protests, Arabic was established as the language of instruction at primary,

intermediate and secondary levels throughout the country.

This language policy played a crucial role in the ongoing disputes which affected the

country. Every government since Independence failed to find a compromise between

the South and the North so that as time went on things became more and more

complicated and unmanageable. We also need to bear in mind that the British

colonial policy towards Arabic and the problems which the Sudanese inherited from

the colonial era negatively affected popular attitudes towards English. There was a

widespread tendency to prefer Arabic as a national and cultural language and as the

language of Islam. Furthermore, some politicians and educators claimed that English

was a symbol of colonialism and should therefore be avoided (Miller & Abu-Manga

1992).

When the Revolutionary Command Council for National Salvation took over in 1989,

following yet another military coup, the revolutionary educational concept of

Arabicisation was introduced. This meant that Arabic was to be used at all levels of

education, even within the higher education institutes. The Islamic Military

Revolution aimed not only to introduce Arabic as a national, cultural and religious

language but also to create a negative attitude towards English (Useem 1998). Of

course, the civil war in the South, international sanctions led by the USA and the

global capital system were further elements which helped the Islamic government in

their efforts to change popular feelings towards English. The government tried hard

to stop the war in the South. They also succeeded in mobilising a huge number of

young people under the revolutionary Islamic term of Jihad. For almost eleven years,

the mass media, cultural events and the educational curriculum were directed against

America. Political oratory reached a peak, and public mobilisation for Jihad was the

priority. The government also changed the education system from three levels to two

: the elementary level with eight grades and the secondary level with three grades.

English was introduced as a subject in the 5th grade of elementary school.

Peace agreement of 2004

At the beginning of the millennium, the Islamic government began to show signs of

flexibility. This led to the start of peace negotiations and, eventually, the Interim

Peace Agreement between the North and the South was reached in 2004. The Islamic

government and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement headed by Dr John

Garang signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) which conceded for the

first time that English was an official language. Once again, English became the

medium of instruction in the higher education institutes (Sudan Tribune 2004). With

the CPA, English is thriving again. It has an essential and effective role to play in the

post-war era of development of Sudan.


During the interim peace of 2004-2005, Dr John Garang’s speeches in English

inspired the population, whatever the context in which he spoke. The Sudanese

people admired his oratory, even though his speeches were in English, because they

could understand his themes and believed in what he was proclaiming : a New Sudan

of unity and solidarity, and a New Generation of Peace between the North and the

South. Dr John Garang’s speeches helped to revive the use of English after a long

period of absence.

Another issue that has assisted in the revival of English is Darfur. The chaotic

situation and the tribal disputes in that region have attracted the attention of

international organisations. Many foreign workers have arrived to offer relief in the

miserable situation in the western area of Sudan. Darfur has become the focus of

attention of the world’s mass media. Many non-governmental organisations have

hired local employees. As a result, many Sudanese graduates have enrolled in

intensive English courses to improve their language skills.

At the same time, throughout the country, vacancies with national and international

oil companies, other firms and organisations are now being advertised in English,

even when the advertisements are published in the local Arabic-medium newspapers.

The demand for English is greater than ever before. The general public attitude

towards English now is that it is the language of development and technology, not the

language of colonisation and segregation.

Prospects for the future

The current situation in Sudan is still complex. The tribal conflicts in the West as

well as political disputes in the East and the six year interim peace period between the

North and the South all contribute to this complexity. Predictions and speculations

abound. Investment opportunities are vigorously sought after, because of the multiple

natural and human resources which are available.1 Recent oil exploration in Sudan

also indicates that there are reserves which, if properly exploited, could lead to major

improvement in living conditions.

What the people of Sudan need and what they have been waiting for since

Independence fifty years ago is a real economic take off. The original dream at

Independence has faded. Ordinary Sudanese are simply concentrating on the struggle

to survive. The periodic conflicts, natural disasters and political disputes have

disrupted the nation and its kind and generous people. What people need now is a

complete change in every aspect of life that will lead to a more positive future.

English can contribute to this because of its neutrality and its economic impact.

Note 1 The Food and Agriculture Organisation has said that Sudan has the potential to become one of the

major ‘bread baskets’ of the world, producing on a large scale the food which other countries need.


References

Abu-Bakr, Y.E. and Al-Amin Abu-Manga. 1997. Language situation and planning in

the Sudan. Paper presented at the Intergovernmental Conference on Language

Policies in Africa, Harare, Zimbabwe, 17-21 March 1997.

Beshir, M.O. 1968. The Problem of South Sudan. Beirut : Dar el Jeil Press.

Beshir, M.O. 1969. Educational Development in the Sudan, 1898-1956. London :

Oxford University Press.

Gordon, R.G., Jr. (ed.). 2005. Ethnologue : Languages of the World. 15th ed.

Dallas : SIL International. (Online version: www.ethnologue.com )

Hurreiz, S. and Bell, H. (eds). 1975. Directions in Sudanese Linguistics and

Folklore. Khartoum : University of Khartoum Press.

Miller, C. and Abu-Manga, A. 1992. The Ethno-linguistic Map of the Sudan.

Khartoum : Khartoum University Press.

Republic of Sudan. 1998. The Constitution of the Republic of Sudan, 1 July 1998.

Retrieved from http://www.sudan.net/government/constitution/english.html.

Sudan Tribune. 2004. Protocol between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the

Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM) on Power Sharing (‘Naivasha

Protocol’). Sudan Tribune, Wednesday 26 May 2004. Retrieved from

http://www.sudantribune.com/IMG/doc/20040527_power_sharing_protocol_.doc .

Useem, A. 1998. ‘Higher-education revolution’ divides academics in Sudan.

Chronicle of Higher Education 27 February.

Lunt and Hamlyn A project in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka 107

Chapter 10

Lessons from a training project in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka

Richard Lunt and Amy Hamlyn Context

English is widely considered to be an ethnically neutral language in Sri Lanka, a country still not recovered from civil war, although its status is sometimes associated negatively with the colonial past. The nationalist policy of Swabasha (‘own language’) introduced in 1956 made Sinhala the only recognised language, with dire consequences for the Tamils in education and employment. The Burghers, a mixed group of Sri Lankan, Dutch and Portuguese origin also suffered under this policy. Tamil and Sinhala are now both recognised as national languages, with English an ‘official’ language. Today, English is the language of business, travel and employment opportunity, and increasingly of higher education, and the general consensus seems to be that the neglect of English in the recent past led to the advancement of a few and the disadvantage of many.

School education in Sri Lanka comes under the Ministry of Education. There are central bodies in Colombo under the Ministry with special responsibilities. The English department of the National Institute of Education (NIE) is responsible for syllabus content, textbook production, assessment and teacher training, both pre-service, and in-service. The country is divided into eight provinces. Each province has a department of education. The provinces are divided into districts (e.g. Jaffna, Trincomalee) and each district is further divided into zones, for example Jaffna has five zones and Trincomalee has three. Each zone has a ‘Lighthouse School’, a centre of excellence, (being increased to two per zone) and further support is provided by the network of 30 Regional English Support Centres (RESCs), which come directly under the NIE. In-Service Advisors (ISAs), who work at the departmental level in each zone with the Additional Directors of Education for English (ADEs), provide the quality control mechanism. English language teaching (ELT) in Sri Lanka is undertaken both by cadre teachers, who have attended teacher training college, and contract teachers, who have not. Overall, there is a shortage of teachers, with the inevitable consequent doubling up of teaching roles. Recent moves to spread English medium teaching have highlighted the shortage of teachers able to teach in and through English. The project

The Training for ELT Communities Project (TELT Communities Project, TELT for short) took place in the Districts of Jaffna and Trincomalee in the North and East of Sri Lanka respectively.


Figure 1 : Map of Sri Lanka

Both cities were severely affected by the 20-year civil war. Jaffna in particular has frequently been fought over between the government and Tamil Tiger (LTTE) forces, and was effectively cut off from normal life in the outside world for years. Trincomalee was periodically cut off, but accessible for much of the time, and so was more able to participate in the usual activities of normal life, such as teacher training. With the end of active hostilities in December 2001 and the signing of a ceasefire the following February, Jaffna became accessible again, through scheduled flights and then the reopening of the road from the capital, Colombo. In April 2002 a group of trainers from the Sri Lanka English Language Teachers Association (SLELTA) - including the authors with Mariam Zarmalwal and Gerald Yorwerth of the British Council, and three Sri Lankan professionals, Nirmali Hettiarachchi, Ranjan Ratnapala and Chandra Chitrananda flew to Jaffna to deliver two days of teacher training. We were met with overwhelming enthusiasm, and numerous requests for more, and more long-term, training programmes. When Amy Hamlyn and Mariam Zarmalwal had the opportunity to visit Jaffna again, this time on a two-week teacher training course for two leading schools, they took the opportunity to explore these requests further. They had discussions with a range of potential stakeholders – teachers, principals, zonal and district education authorities, and the staff of the Jaffna RESC. Realising that input and support from the Provincial government were essential, Amy and Mariam visited Trincomalee during their holidays armed with introductions from the district and zonal players in Jaffna. Both input and support were immediately forthcoming, for a teacher training and trainer training project, and Amy and Mariam set about designing this. At this stage they had yet to speak to the central government. The project went through several revisions, each checked with the stakeholders in Jaffna and Trincomalee, before reaching the form in which it was eventually implemented. It was at this stage that it was presented to officials at the Ministry and the National Institute of Education. The officials were supportive, thought that it


might fit into a larger World Bank project (which in the end was not implemented), but did not at this stage become champions. This was probably due to the smallness of the project’s scale, in terms of modest aims, geographic limitations (and the Ministry in Colombo must be more aware of this than in most countries, due to the ethnic situation) and finance. The project was also presented to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the UK Department for International Development and, successfully, to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The latter had a programme under its Office of Transition Initiatives which supports small projects such as that which is described here. Through this programme we were granted a total of $117,000, plus a small extension after the evaluation of the project. USAID were interested in the proposal because this was a way of supporting activity in Jaffna without dealing with the LTTE (an organisation which is proscribed in the USA and other countries), and of assisting community building in Trincomalee by bringing together respected community members from the Sinhala, Tamil and Moslem populations. The activities of the project are summarised in Figure 2.

Trainer Training

Master Trainers trained (10 days) by British Council Team Leaders

Model Teacher Training Course

Senior Teachers trained (15 days, various inputs) by Master Trainers and British Council Team Leaders plus first group of higher ability teachers (10 days)

Cascade A Higher-ability teachers trained (10 days) by Senior Teachers doing short inputs only, training in teams mentored by Master Trainers and supervised by British Council Team Leaders

Cascade B Mixed ability teachers trained (10 days) by Senior Teachers doing longer inputs each, training in teams mentored and supervised by Master Trainers observed by British Council Team Leaders

Cascade C Mixed ability teachers trained (10 days) by Senior Teachers responsible for whole sessions, partially mentored and supervised by Master Trainers and observed by British Council Team Leaders

Follow up workshops

Eight workshops (2 per day) delivered quarterly throughout 2005, organised independently by Master Trainers and Senior Teachers through Zonal Support Groups, funded and monitored by respective Education Zones

Figure 2 : Cascade model of training

The four ‘Master Trainers’ in each district, who were to become the trainer trainers at the apex of the cascade, started by being trained in mentoring, supervision, administration of training and classroom observation and feedback. They were next joined by the twenty ‘Senior Teachers’ in each district, the teacher trainers. Ten of the fifteen days input at this stage were concerned with the delivery of the teacher training course by the Master Trainers to the Senior Teachers and other experienced teachers. The Senior Teachers then delivered the teacher training course in three ‘cascades’. It was the same group of Senior Teachers who delivered each cascade, taking on progressively more delivery time within a workshop. (Readers familiar with courses leading to the Cambridge Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults or CELTA, where trainee teachers at first teach five minutes each, and are each teaching 45 minute slots by the end of the course, will recognise this pattern.)


Throughout each cascade they had training observation, feedback and support from their Master Trainer. This is very different from the cascade system of A delivering to B who delivers to C in a sort of Chinese whispers.

Incorporated into the teacher training course was observed teaching practice, with volunteer students after school hours, in which each Master Trainer would work with a group of five Senior Teachers, mentoring them as they developed their skills in classroom observation and giving feedback. By the end, each Master Trainer had received sixty days of trainer training and experience, and each Senior Teacher fifty days of teacher training and observation practice. In Jaffna there were 228 teachers and in Trincomalee 163 teachers (80% of the two districts’ secondary English teachers of all contract types) who underwent the intensive ten day course. Evaluation

The cascade model has come in for criticism in the past since, typically, the quality of the teaching or training decreases with each further delivery of the material. However, the TELT model of cascading differed from usual practice. Although there were new participants for each delivery, the trainers continued to be the same set of Senior Teachers. The Senior Teachers were encouraged to self-evaluate and were monitored closely by their mentors, the Master Trainers. The Master Trainers were in turn mentored by the Team Leaders. This allowed the quality of training to improve with each cascade, with the result that the Senior Teachers were eventually training with a higher competency than the training which they had originally received themselves. The close working relationships within the mentor groups facilitated by each Master Trainer enabled frank, constructive feedback to be exchanged. The Master Trainers had the opportunity to develop their credibility as trainer mentors whilst the Senior Teachers gained confidence and satisfaction from their training experience. The capacity development of two key elements in sustainable teacher education - a motivated pool of practising teacher trainers, and a group of experienced trainer mentors - constituted two major successes of this adaptation of the cascade model. However, this required a heavy commitment on the part of the Senior Teachers, who while training for TELT were obviously unable to teach at school. Although most school principals were supportive of the Senior Teachers’ professional development there were a few who (understandably enough) felt frustrated at staff absences. An external evaluation of TELT was carried out in 2005 by Psyche Kennett. The report on this evaluation identified the procedure for selection of Master Trainers and Senior Teachers as an example of best practice. The selection process began with the local authorities recommending a pool of candidates. Team Leaders then selected the best candidates from this pool by using a proficiency test, a written assignment (a workshop plan for potential Master Trainers, a lesson plan for Senior Teachers) and an interview. This procedure was localised, transparent, and as a result led to dissatisfaction being expressed by only one person from among all the candidates considered in the two districts.


We have spoken about the success of the project. We would like to support this claim by quoting the impacts listed in the evaluation report (Kennett 2005:5) and by supplementing these with additional information. 1) Substantial numbers of trainers and teachers were trained by the project in methodology for English language teaching. As already noted, the project reached 80% of practitioners in the areas where it was working. 2) There was a strong sense of empowerment and professional achievement amongst project participants at the trainer-trainer, teacher trainer, and teacher levels. One key aspect is that the training encouraged the use of a methodology and techniques which can be implemented with nothing more than blackboard and chalk. It looked at how to manage pair and group work in classrooms without a wall to separate one classroom from another, and with fixed rows of desks. Another important aspect is that the Master Trainers and Senior Teachers are now earning more as trainers within the system. The local department of education has recognised their skills as trainers and recruits them to deliver departmental training. Furthermore, all those involved in the project have increased their earning potential – a significant fact of life - through giving private lessons. 3) Provincial and zonal departments of education have promised to support continued TELT interventions in the future. The north-eastern provincial authority budgeted funds for 2005 for the TELT teacher trainers to carry out follow up workshops under the TELT banner. In addition, immediately after the project, some trainers were deployed in delivering NIE produced workshops for the language/methodology upgrade of teachers in Jaffna. The provincial authority also plans to use the trainers for training and mentoring the contract teachers to be upgraded to full time English teachers. We should emphasise that the trainer trainers and teacher trainers were never taken out of the system, and so were in a position to immediately implement further interventions, whether these originated from TELT or from the government. 4) A professional community has been created across linguistic, ethnic and geographical divisions, speaking and teaching English to promote the same. This outcome is best illustrated by quotations from participants themselves. For example, a teacher from Jaffna said :

I’ve chance of speaking only in English for ten days and I’ve got some English speaking friends.

It is worth mentioning that 94% of participants felt that there had been an improvement in their oral skills as a result of the course, and 84% felt that their written skills had improved. In addition, 84% of school principals said that their teachers were now ‘very confident’ in using English. Another participant from Jaffna added :


This was the first opportunity was available for us to meet almost many teachers from the whole of Jaffna district and share our ideas and discuss our problems after many long years.

Comments from Trincomalee in this respect are even more striking :

I have never moved with such numbers of Muslims and Tamils. and

This TELT Project will help to regain peace to Sri Lanka to a certain extent. 5) A practical framework is in place for the supervision, planning, teaching, and training of English. Mentoring of teachers and classroom observations followed by constructive feedback have been adopted as a formal procedure in at least one zone per district. Similar procedures have been adopted informally in other zones. This has gone a considerable way to resolving tensions between the support offered by RESCs and the work of the ISAs which, previously, had often been perceived as being closer to policing than advising. An improved understanding between these two wings is very much to the good of the service. 6) Human resource development at classroom, school, and training centre levels has been re-emphasised. Let us turn to quotations again, first from a Master Trainer in Jaffna :

I have developed great confidence in me, that I can deliver any workshop on any given topic systematically and effectively.

A similar comment was made by a Senior Teacher in Trincomalee :

As a Subject Co-ordinator of English I’m confident to conduct a classroom observation and give constructive, appropriate feedback to the other teachers of English.

7) There has been an impressive number of staff promotions across the board as a result of attending TELT, strengthening existing systems and roles at zone and school level. One Master Trainer has been appointed as Advisor to the Provincial Department of Education, two Senior Teachers have been promoted to Lighthouse Schools, one Senior Teacher has become an ISA, one Senior Teacher has become a Teacher Centre1 Manager, two Senior Teachers have been promoted to better schools, and one Master Trainer has become Teacher in Charge in the Jaffna RESC. 8) Zonal Support Groups, school based mentoring skills and a programme of in-service workshops have been initiated to support teachers in schools and to sustain change.


These initiatives have been modified and have been taken up by a Lighthouse School in Jaffna, which is currently planning a ‘Teacher Support Three Day Conference’. We would like to record two further positive impacts of the project, in addition to the eight identified by Kennett (2005). 9) Experience has been gained in setting up and running large scale teacher training workshops. The workshops were for the most part carried out in the districts rather than in Colombo. The experience which was gained has proved useful in the planning of further training inputs, such as the Lighthouse Schools’ activity based programme for English., and the roll-out of large province-wide training programmes such as Activity Based Oral English training for primary school teachers. 10) There has been positive cross-over of the communicative language teaching methodology. Being introduced to communicative language teaching ideas has benefited those who teach other subjects such as mathematics and science through the medium of English. Teachers also commented that the methodology could be applied to teaching Sinhala and Tamil, each a foreign language to the other community. Discussion

We now turn to the interests of different stakeholders. Here we can speak with most confidence about the interests of the British Council. The Council is concerned to engage with and facilitate the development of professionals, often through their networks. In its Charter the promotion of the English language is a key plank. What could possibly be more central to the British Council’s activities, then, than providing assistance to the development of English training communities? Although in many countries part of the grant which the British Council receives from the British government may be used for purposes related to English language teaching, the British Council is fundamentally not a donor agency. It is, rather, an implementation agency. The Council was therefore delighted that, through this project, it was able to reach far beyond its teaching centres in Colombo and Kandy; this is something that would not have been possible without partnering a donor agency. While USAID was not uninterested in the ELT focus, and the ultimate effect of project activity on children’s education, they were more interested in the post-conflict aspects of the project. These were particularly manifest in Trincomalee, where through TELT the three ethnic communities came together in a professional context, as noted above. Jaffna, on the other hand, is no longer ethnically mixed. However, it is certainly a traumatised society, and the opportunity was there for a project that could reach all five zones of the district and bring teachers and trainers together for training for the first time after many years of geographical separation by the conflict. USAID were also interested in Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa, border districts


where distrust of the peace process is at its highest. Thus TELT was (and is) much more than just an ELT project. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is now taking over the baton from USAID. It is hoped that UNICEF will be able to fund TELT in at least seven further districts. Not surprisingly, UNICEF’s main concern is with the ultimate benefit which the project has for children. Moreover, TELT’s methodology fits in well with specific elements of UNICEF’s international vision of a ‘Child Friendly School’ as ‘an environment that is effective for learning’ and which : • ‘Promotes good quality teaching and learning processes. This includes

individualised instruction appropriate to each child and active, cooperative and democratic learning methods.

• Provides structured content and good quality materials and resources. • Enhances a teacher’s capacity, morale, commitment, status and income - and their

own recognition of child rights. • Promotes quality learning outcomes by defining and helping children learn what

they need to know and teaching them how to learn.’ (UNICEF 2007) These elements are being incorporated into future roll-outs of the project. Although the first implementation of TELT had strong support from the provincial authority, awareness of the project was low in the Ministry of Education in Colombo. That situation has since changed, and the Ministry of Education now values TELT primarily as a means for building up the skills of trainer trainers. The Ministry has worked with UNICEF to prioritise those districts where English O Level examination results are lowest, with consequent impact on access to further education and/or employment. The Ministry has accepted that it is not possible to produce a country-wide network of trainer trainers in a short time; it appears to be happy with the gradual implementation which TELT is providing. The provincial and district education authorities, as noted, are already employing personnel from the original TELT project to carry out further training. This work is paid at a higher than usual daily rate, so the trainers themselves have benefited financially as well as professionally. School principals believe that the provision of ELT in their schools has improved. But what about the children? Two children were overheard talking about teaching practice classes, and one commented (in Tamil) :

If they taught us like this all the time, we might be able to speak English. Meanwhile, a participant on the Trincomalee Model Teacher Training course wrote :

The children said they were enjoying the classes and even more children then asked to join the TP (teaching practice) class.

As the project team worked closely with the departmental level authorities (Zonal Additional Directors of Education for English), they could see the real improvement of teachers and trainers and realised the benefits of such training for themselves. For the project extension, the project personnel asked if they could participate in the materials writing training and IT training which was being offered to the Master Trainers and Senior Teachers. This request was of course granted.


Lessons learnt

In the preceding evaluation and discussion sections we have identified a number of positive impacts and evidence of success of the TELT Project. But what lessons to be learnt are there? The first is that a bottom up approach to project design is of considerable value. The whole concept of TELT began with requests from teachers and was heavily influenced by the lower levels of the local administration. This approach benefited the project in two main ways. Firstly, it ensured that the project was relevant to the actual needs of English education at the district level, as we will illustrate later. Secondly, it meant that the project was small scale and localised enough to work entirely within the existing government system. It was not necessary to establish a parallel project bureaucracy; specially created project systems frequently create tensions with existing systems and then collapse after the lifetime of the project. Another lesson to be learnt concerns the existence of a nearby British Council English teaching centre. In the case of Sri Lanka, the Council’s English teaching centre is large, employing some sixty teachers. Some of these teachers are highly qualified; others possess considerable teacher training experience and local knowledge. All have a strong desire to achieve impact. The availability of these people made it possible to provide support to a relatively inexpensive (and Land Cruiser-free), locally responsive project possible. The project was thus funded by USAID and implemented by the British Council. Sometimes, light infantry is more effective than battalions. A lesson was also learnt about the over-ambitiousness of the original aims concerning teaching methodology. The plan at first had been that teachers would move from teacher–centred low accuracy lessons to a student-centred high fluency model. Experience taught us that in fact it would have been more realistic to aim for an intermediate stage of student-centred high accuracy, since achieving high fluency turned out to be unrealistic. Other lessons included the following : • school principals should be briefed about the project in their native language

rather than English • a workshop on designing workshop materials should be included in the project • estimates of travelling time should be realistic • estimates of workloads for the Project Co-ordinators and Team Leaders should be

realistic. All of these issues have been attended to and we are confident that the project will continue to develop. We would like to conclude by suggesting four areas worthy of consideration in the context of ELT in development. 1) Stand-alone projects are out of fashion with many donors, who prefer direct budget support or who put their funds into baskets with other donors to carry out specific tasks. The first method of course allows a government to set its own priorities and implement them as it sees fit. However, whilst the Ministry of Finance


may be happy to receive the cheque, officials in the Ministry of Education (or Health, etc) may experience difficulty in gaining access to the funds. Basket funding, meanwhile, works well as a means of channelling funds to a specific large task, such as school building. While any large project funded through either of these mechanisms may include a human resource development strand, we believe that small projects such as TELT can represent extremely good value for money. As Kennett states :

Small but highly professional projects, such as TELT, are efficient, easy to manage and great value for money. In education, where the goal is capacity building and human resource development, small often works best. (2005:47)

The risks of balkanisation and inefficient duplication, often associated with small scale projects, can be avoided by working closely with the authorities inside existing systems. 2) Those who design large projects have many strands to consider, and may not be fully conversant with local conditions and needs. However thorough a baseline study is, it cannot provide the same insights as are gained when working closely with stakeholders and finding out their needs over a period of time. It is the latter which has informed TELT. Indeed one of the most important factors in ensuring the sustainability of TELT was the sense of ownership experienced by the zonal education departments (among others), engendered by the fact that they were carefully consulted and involved in project design. (Another crucial factor contributing to sustainability was the fact that the scale of the project allowed it to operate entirely within existing systems.) 3) Related to this, note the inclusion of the term ‘communities’ in the project title : ‘TELT Communities’. One of the keys to the success of this project was that it included all administrative branches of the education system as well as the teachers and trainers. There was consultation and involvement at every level. Thus managerial approval and support, essential for putting theory into practice, were obtained alongside the approval of the key beneficiaries, essential for realising the project aims. 4) ELT itself is out of fashion with many donors, although many governments and societies see it as a priority. While we should never underrate the importance of English language teaching, we must also keep in mind the priorities and aims of donors, and look for fits with these. The post-conflict community building aspect of TELT is a good example of this. Giving teachers and trainers a chance to take an objective look at their own teaching methodology, their own classroom situation, the textbooks they use, and the teaching support they receive, opened the way for reform from within the system. Pressure coming from teachers and from those at local government level, pressure to look at textbooks, assessment, recruitment and so on, pressure based on chalkface realities : all of these are signs of a healthy system staffed by dedicated professionals. We hope that this small project will go beyond the human resource development achieved, and help initiate some of these changes.


Note 1 Teacher Centres are training and resource centres for teachers in each zone. References Kennett, P. 2005. Evaluation of the TELT Communities Project in Jaffna and Trincomalee. Colombo : Unpublished report. UNICEF. 2007. Child Friendly Schools. www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index_focus_schools.html. Accessed 13 March 2007.

Strand 3 : Language and development

projects and their design

Chambers Words, power and the personal in development 119

Chapter 11

Words, power and the personal in development1

Robert Chambers

Introduction

Change in our world and in development appears to be accelerating in many

dimensions. Some of these changes are obvious and receive much attention, most

notably information technology and communications. At the same time, other key

areas of change have been relatively neglected in development practice and discourse.

Three which have been little on the agenda of concern but which are now more and

more recognised for their significance are :

• words – the words and languages used by development professionals

• power and the relationships associated with power

• the personal – what sort of people we, as development professionals, are and how

we behave.

Words, power and relationships, the personal

Words, power and relationships, and the personal are interconnected in many ways

(Figure 1).

Figure 1 : Language and development


In The Web of Being (1996) Capra wrote:

The uniqueness of being human lies in our ability to continually weave the

linguistic network in which we are embedded. To be human is to exist in

language. In language we coordinate our behaviour, and together in language

we bring forth our world.

Relating language, power and the personal thus raises questions as to whose language

and whose words count. In whose language do we - or are we - compelled or induced

to exist? In whose language do we - or are we - compelled or induced to coordinate

our behaviour? And in whose language do we together bring forth our world?

The words and phrases used in development are instruments of power and reflect

relationships. In subtle and not so subtle ways, languages can reflect power relations

and realities. For example, social relations can be embedded in a language. A clear

illustration can be found in English where the words for animals – ox, cow, sheep,

ewe, ram, pig, sow – are those of the conquered Anglo-Saxon serfs who herded the

animals, whereas the words for meat - beef, veal, mutton, pork – are those of the

conquering Normans who ate them. And today, invasive and dominating languages

which become lingua francas - like English, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese,

Mandarin, Hindi and Arabic - marginalise and disempower those who do not

command them well.

An example : a poor man in Northern Ghana with whom a colleague stayed on an

immersion programme was frustrated that he had not been taught English. His own

language, Pasali, was spoken by only 30,000 people. He had been arrested in Kumasi

for urinating against a wall. He could read, but he did not understand the notice of

prohibition against urinating because it was in English.

Another example : in the past, the staff of the international NGO ActionAid estimated

that they spent a quarter of the year writing and polishing and correcting reports

written in English. They felt, perhaps correctly, that they would be judged on the

quality of their written English.

Differential command of languages can lead to mutual disrespect, with perceptions of

arrogance on one side and stupidity on the other. Many of us will have experienced

this on both sides. I know that I have been insensitive in speaking too fast or using

difficult words with people for whom English is their second, third or fourth language.

I am also ashamed to confess having declined to supervise a Japanese student in the

first year of a two year course because his limited grasp of English misled me into

underestimating him; in his second year, I took him on, and he wrote the best thesis of

any student I have ever had.

New words, expressions and acronyms, and the realities or processes they represent,

are continually being introduced into development. They act as instruments of power.

Many of us will have experienced a sense of marginalisation when a new one comes

along. This was my experience with civil society. At first I did not dare to use the

term because I was afraid someone would ask me what it included and did not

include. I did not know, and I still do not know, but I no longer fear being asked : it is


so widely used that now I could simply throw the question back to the person asking

it.

Many of these words, expressions and acronyms travel and spread round the world

through word of mouth, emails, websites and writings which are based in or originate

from Washington DC, most prominently the World Bank. The verse ‘Words of

Power’ remarks on some, all concerned with power relations, which are now widely

used. by the Bank and by development professionals more generally.

Words of Power

We are the Talking Bank that names

Words for Development Bingo games

Masters of illusion we

Rule through our vocabulary

Ever to maintain our power

We frame meanings by the hour

Opposites for you and us

Yours are minus, ours are plus

Partnership we all agree

Reflects the way we want to be

Fraternally as bigger brothers

We’re more partner than you others

Mutual transparency’s a must

To gain the benefits of trust

In practice it’s a one-way fake

We see through you while we’re opaque

Accountability we require

Of the lower to the higher

For us as uppers it’s a plus

It means that you account to us

Ownership we now bestow

To countries under us who owe

The terms of ownership we set -

Debtors are owners of their debt

One proviso you must meet

You sit in the driver’s seat

(But you must never ever feel

To find whose hands are on the wheel)

Participation’s all the rage

Use the word at every stage

You must please participate

In our planning for your State

Lending and loans we never name

Grants and loans we treat the same

Merging distinctions is professional

Donor funding is concessional

Self doubt’s strictly for the birds

When power weakens, change the words

We have confidence in our trick

Listening’s our new rhetoric

We’re now the Listening Bank that cares

Wrenched with anguish, drenched in tears

As we harken more and more

To the Voices of the Poor

On our Empire the sun won’t set

We are the Lords of Poverty yet

There are now so many of these words (see Table 1) that bingo2 can be played with

them in meetings or during seminars and lectures.

Table 1 : Selection of words widely used in development in past ten years

empowerment globalisation social capital harmonisation mainstream

participation liberalisation sustainable

livelihood delivery rights-based

partnership security civil society logframe chronic poverty

accountability capacity building fragile state effective voice

ownership pro-poor growth state capability stakeholder corruption

transparency budget support social protection citizen results-based

driving seat climate change human rights multi-dimensional vulnerability

The list in Table 1 could perhaps be supplemented with a list of acronyms, such as the

following :


CDD : Community Driven Development

PRSP : Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper

PSIA : Poverty and Social Impact Analysis

MDG : Millennium Development Goal

RBM : Results-Based Management

Awareness of the frequency with which these terms and acronyms are used or over-

used should encourage us to identify other terms and concepts which are important

but still under-used. Such terms include ‘power’ and ‘relationships’.

Sometimes these frequently employed terms are simply dismissed as buzz words, as

words of merely transitory importance. However, to do this may lead us to miss much

of their significance for they both represent and can bring about shifts in orientation

and thinking.

Six terms which have become particularly prominent in recent years are

‘participation’, ‘partnership’, ‘empowerment’, ‘ownership’, ‘accountability’ and

‘transparency’. All refer to power and relationships3, and all are used with hypocrisy :

there is a gap between how the word is used and what it implies, and then what is

done in practice.

Four ways stand out in which words are used as part of a power play in development :

1. To legitimise actions – as with these six power and relationship words. In the

Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness (OECD 2005), the most commonly used

development noun is ‘partner’ which (together with ‘partnership’) appears 96 times.

The term ‘donor’ is close behind with 70 appearances and ‘aid’ appears with 61

occurrences. (This is discussed in more detail below.) Another example is the phrase

‘community-driven development’, which sounds good but which in practice often

takes the form of top-down centre-outwards infrastructure programmes which are

driven not by communities at all but by pressures to disburse, needing to spend funds

before the end of the financial year (World Bank OED 2005). It is a commonplace

that such target-driven development inhibits self-help, induces dependence and

reduces ownership and sustainability.

2. To maintain dominance. People feel disempowered when new words, phrases

or acronyms come in, and they neither know what these terms mean nor do they want

to show their ignorance by asking; these terms often come as part of the baggage of

new required conditions (in the jargon, ‘conditionalities’) or procedures which impose

new burdens. An example is what has been described as ‘assessment overload’, the

reports required from borrowing countries by the World Bank, of which in 2002 there

could be as many as sixteen (Wilks & Lefrançois 2002:13).

3. To camouflage and conceal realities. A stark example is the last chapter of

the World Development Report 2000-2001 (World Bank 2000), concerning aid4. The

World Bank is a lender and puts countries in debt. But the word ‘lender’ appears

nowhere in the chapter, and ‘loan’ is used only in the context of rescheduling debt,

and then only four times. Instead the terms ‘donor’ and ‘donors’ are used over one

hundred times5, while loans are camouflaged through the phrases ‘donor funds’, ‘aid

money’, ‘resource flows’, ‘concessional funds’, ‘concessional financing’ and


‘concessional assistance’. More recently, the conditionalities of aid - earlier

‘structural adjustment’ - have been relabelled ‘policy and programme lending’.

4. To sanitise, stereotype or stigmatise. CNN stopped calling Gilo, an illegal

Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, a ‘Jewish settlement’ and instead used the

comfortable, cosy, friendly term ‘Jewish neighbourhood’. Supplies of arms to

Palestine are ‘arms smuggling’ but to Israel they are ‘defence supplies’. Another set

of examples is the spectrum from ‘freedom fighter’ and ‘martyr’ through ‘belligerent’,

‘guerrilla’ and ‘insurgent’ to ‘terrorist’ and ‘murderer’; these terms are used in

contemporary conflicts by each side to describe the other, blind to the irony of

symmetry.

There are many other examples of such pejorative or positive labelling in

development6, as Table 2 illustrates.

Table 2 : Pejorative and positive terms in development contexts

Pejorative term Positive term

slash-and-burn fallow farming

squatter settler

encroacher pioneer

poacher commercial hunter

smuggling cross border trade

illegal immigrant refugee

Types and pathways of power

Four types of power can be distinguished (VeneKlasen with Miller 2002:45) :

• power over, meaning the power of someone who is ‘upper’ over someone who is

‘lower’

• power to, meaning effective choice, the capability to decide on actions and

implement them

• power with, meaning collective power

• power within, meaning self-confidence.

Despite common usage in which power is gained or lost, power is not like a

commodity of which it is good to have more and bad to have less. Reality is more

nuanced and complex. It is here that power and the personal dimension interrelate.

More often than commonly recognised, power over can be used to transform power in

ways which are not zero sum, with losers, but win-win, in which all gain. For power

over also brings power to empower. See Figure 2.

When used in this way, there can be many gains for the ‘uppers’ (those who are

dominant or superior in a context) : they can experience less stress, enjoy better

relationships, and find pleasure in seeing what the ‘lowers’ (those who are subordinate

or inferior in a context) are capable of. They can also experience greater efficiency

and effectiveness7. The ‘uppers’ also have power, especially as parents and teachers

do, through speaking, teaching and communicating, to name, frame and mould

mindsets. Who does this naming, framing and moulding, how, and in what

circumstances, and who is empowered or disempowered, are areas for further


exploration and analysis. Most commonly it originates from uppers – the World

Bank, aid agencies, intellectuals of various hues – and expresses and forms their

mindsets and shapes their actions and those of others. And this may empower or

disempower the lowers, depending on purpose, context and process.

POWER TO

POWER OVER

POWER TO

DISEMPOWER

POWER TO

EMPOWER

POWER

WITHIN

POWER

WITH

POWER

TO

NAME

FRAME

MOULD

CHANGE BEHAVIOUR

AND RELATIONSHIPS

CONVENE

COACH, SUPPORT

MAKE ENABLING

RULES

DOMINATE

MARGINALISE

EXCLUDE

IMPOVERISH

UPPERS

LOWERS

Figure 2 : Types and pathways of power

In all this, the effects of the adoption and legitimising of words are not trivial.

‘Globalisation’ and ‘liberalisation’, when used or assumed as motherhood words, can

be used to justify a cluster of often questionable policies. Conversely, the adoption

and legitimising of good governance, and the repeated naming of corruption, have

brought into the open issues that were previously hidden and that have needed to be

confronted. The power to name and frame, and to mould and orient mindsets, itself

has to be named, recognised and consciously used for good purposes.

Words used in development can be embedded through repetition, as we noted earlier.

The Paris Declaration (OECD 2005) is a striking illustration. Though a short


document, the density of key words is striking. For that document, a sentence can be

composed of frequently used nouns and verbs as follows :

To monitor indicators of effective performance from aid, donors and partners

need the capacity to manage the mutual harmonisation of programmes to

assess, measure, and report on results8

Paradigmatically, this is a mechanistic world with organisations rather than people

where aid effectiveness is to be achieved through top-down standardised bureaucratic

norms, with measurements and upwards reporting of results

A shadow sentence can be made up of words that do not appear in the Paris

Declaration :

To negotiate and evolve agreements that optimise outcomes for poor,

vulnerable and marginalised people requires compromises and trade-offs

based on personal conviction, interactions and relationships that nurture

trust, and reflective appreciation of power and conflicts.

Paradigmatically, this is a world that names and recognises the realities and

significance of power, trust, negotiation and relationships in aid (see for example

Eyben 2006), and above all of poor people. Many words, like those in the shadow

sentence, are candidates for future use.

An agenda?

There will be many ideas about an agenda for analysis and action. Here are six ideas

presented rhetorically as questions.

1. Enhance and celebrate linguistic richness and diversity?

The Inuit are said to have at least 63 words or expressions to describe conditions of

snow (de Boinod 2005:166-167). At a recent party, an Indian and a Nepali identified

eighteen Hindi words or expressions for different forms of non-violent protest.

Somali words for different degrees of thirst are said to be numerous. We need to

celebrate the richness of perception and discrimination of such diversities. A brilliant

example was the front page of the London-based newspaper The Independent on 26

July 2006 headed ‘26 pupils. 26 languages. One lesson for Britain’ which showed 26

pupils from the same primary school9, and all their 26 different native tongues.

We also need to respect people’s priorities for learning English, which increasingly is

the language of power, of access, of the market, of employment.

English as the inexorably dominant global lingua franca has adopted many words

from other languages. Many concepts in other languages, like ‘ubuntu’10, have much

to offer but have not yet been adopted to a significant degree. It is a question whether

we should make more effort to enable very young children, at the stage when they can

easily learn languages, to be brought up bilingually or multilingually. Should we,


development professionals and uppers generally, enhance and celebrate linguistic

richness and diversity?

2. Narrow gaps?

Much can be done to narrow the hypocrisy gaps between words and actions. This can

apply especially to the words associated with power, like the six frequently used

words which we discussed above. In international aid, this applies most starkly to

‘partnership’, a word used repeatedly to describe manifestly unequal relationships

(Eyben 2006). Should narrowing such gaps - by challenging those with power to

define what the words should mean in terms of their relationships with their ‘partners’

- be at the core of a campaign to improve aid?

3. Non-verbal and visual communications?

Should we use video, theatre and other forms of communication, given their potential

for enabling weakness to speak truth to power, and for power to learn? Participatory

video has shown a big potential here, with local people, literate or non-literate,

displaying remarkable capabilities to express themselves through taking videos

(Lunch & Lunch 2006). Theatre, puppetry and mime also enable people who are

subordinate to speak truth to power (Abah 2004, McCarthy with Galvao 2004).

Should we, development professionals, do much more to encourage such creative

forms of communication through drawings, diagrams, theatre and video, especially

where they can empower and give voice to those who are weak and marginalised?

4. Define terms?

Jargon can be useful technical and professional language for some, and unintelligible

gibberish to others. Often it empowers some and disempowers others. Should we

insist on glossaries of terms in papers and reports as a matter of course and of good

professional practice? How many terms have I used in this paper which I should have

either omitted or explained?

5. Introduce and use words proactively?

Expressions like ‘social capital’ (especially in the World Bank) and ‘sustainable

livelihoods’ (especially in DFID, the UK Department for International Development)

have served internal political purposes in power relations, enabling a degree of

levelling with dominant economics and economists, and providing an acceptable

common ground which is not owned by any one discipline.11 When invited to name

positive words expressing concepts, values and actions that they would like to be

become common in development discourse, participants in workshops have often

proposed and given high scores to the following : critical empathy ethics honesty

humility justice listen love

peace reflect redistribution respect

6. Address the personal dimension?

Changes in attitudes, behaviours and mindsets are so obviously fundamental to good

change that they tend to be overlooked. See Figure 3.


Figure 3 : Dimensions of change

What happens and does not happen in development practice so manifestly depends on

development actors and what they do and how they do it and what they do not do,

what they say and how they say it and what they do not say, and on their behaviours,

attitudes, mindsets and relationships, that it is nothing short of bizarre that these

personal aspects have received so little attention. Should they, not least in the

domains of language and development, now be placed centre stage? And are the

words which we use and the uses which we make of our personal power a place to

start?

To ask these questions is embarrassing for I do not do what I say. However, you will

recognise that I cannot help having been born English, and will know that for the

English hypocrisy is an art form. So, if you are generous and understanding, you will

appreciate that I am only practising and affirming my national, or perhaps more

accurately tribal, culture, in ending with Gandhi’s challenge to us all :

We must become the change we wish to see in the world.


Notes 1 This is an expanded and revised paper based on notes of and diagrams from a talk given at the 7th

International Language and Development Conference, Addis Ababa, October 2005. I have introduced

a little material which has appeared since that Conference.

2 In bingo, also known as housey-housey and tombola, players have sheets with columns of numbers

which they tick as they are called out. The first person with a completed column shouts ‘bingo’. With

these development words the cry could be ‘development’.

3 For recent sources on power and relationships, see Eyben 2006 and Eyben, Harris and Pettit 2006.

4 For a fuller analysis of the cosmetic and dissembling use of language in the World Development

Report see Chambers 2001.

5 The World Bank is mainly a moneylender but calls itself a donor. It is a nice irony that anyone in the

World Bank who described a moneylender in a developing country as a donor might be met with

incomprehension.

6 For the power of labelling in development practice see Eyben and Moncrieffe 2006.

7 For a fuller treatment of gains to ‘uppers’ from empowering ‘lowers’ see Chambers 2006.

8 The frequency with which each of these key words appears in the Paris Declaration is shown in

brackets : ‘To monitor (18) indicators (30) of effective (38) performance (17) from aid (61), donors

(70) and partners (96) need the capacity (20) to manage (17) the mutual (12) harmonisation (21) of

programmes (22) to assess (16), measure (11) and report (11) on results (20).’

9 The school was Uphall Primary School in Ilford, UK.

10 ‘Ubuntu’ (Nguni language of South Africa) = humanity, mutual interdependence, ‘I am because you

are’.

11 For a summary of the institutional and power-related functions of the terms ‘social capital’ in the

World Bank and ‘sustainable livelihoods’ more generally, see Chambers (2005:200-201) which also

gives sources.

References

Abah, O.S. 2004. Voices aloud : Making communication and change together.

Participatory Learning and Action 50:45-52.

Capra, F. 1996. The Web of Being : A New Synthesis of Mind and Matter.

London: Harper Collins.

Chambers, R. 2001. The World Development Report : Concepts, content and a

chapter 12. Journal of International Development 13:299-306.

Chambers, R. 2005. Ideas for Development. London and Sterling VA : Earthscan.

Chambers, R. 2006. Transforming power : From zero-sum to win-win? In R.Eyben,

C.Harris and J.Pettit (eds), Exploring Power for Change. IDS Bulletin 37(6).

Brighton : Institute of Development Studies.


de Boinod, A.J. 2005. The Meaning of Tingo and Other Extraordinary Words from

Around the World. London : Penguin Books.

Eyben, R. (ed.). 2006. Relationships for Aid. London and Sterling VA : Earthscan.

Eyben, R. and Moncrieffe, J. 2006. The Power of Labelling in Development

Practice. (IDS Policy Briefing, Issue 28.) Brighton : Institute of Development

Studies.

Eyben, R., Harris, C. and Pettit, J. (eds). 2006. Exploring Power for Change. IDS

Bulletin 37(6). Brighton : Institute of Development Studies.

Lunch, N. and Lunch, C. 2006. Insights into Participatory Video : A Handbook for

the Field. Oxford : Insight.

McCarthy, J. with Galvao, K. 2004. Enacting Participatory Development : Theatre-

Based Techniques. London and Sterling VA : Earthscan.

OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). 2005. Paris

Declaration on Aid Effectiveness : Ownership, Harmonisation, Alignment, Results

and Mutual Accountability. Paris : Development Advisory Committee of the OECD.

VeneKlasen, L. with Miller, V. 2002. A New Weave of Power, People and Politics :

The Action Guide for Advocacy and Citizen Participation. Oklahoma : World

Neighbours.

Wilks, A. and Lefrançois, F. 2002. Blinding with Science or Encouraging Debate?

How World Bank Analysis Determines PRSP [Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers]

Policies. (Bretton Woods Project.) London : World Vision International.

World Bank. 2000. World Development Report 2000-2001 : Attacking Poverty.

New York and Oxford : Oxford University Press.

World Bank Operations Evaluation Department. 2005. The Effectiveness of World

Bank Support for Community-Based and -Driven Development. Washington DC :

World Bank Operations Evaluation Department.

Holliday Matrix thinking in project design 130

Chapter 12

The dangers of matrix thinking in international curriculum project

design

Adrian Holliday

Introduction

In this paper I look critically at what might be called stakeholder-centredness. Despite

the desire to be inclusive and collaborative in the consideration of stakeholders in

project planning, the result may be the opposite. With the ascendancy, in the late

1980s, of a particularly powerful technicalised professional discourse concerning how

projects should be run, which became known as projectisation, the efficiency of

curriculum ventures may have become dependent on writing stakeholders into the

project plan rather than making the plan sensitive to the stakeholders. This state of

affairs may be difficult to manage because all parties become implicated in a form of

‘matrix thinking’ which pervades the entire lives of projects. Furthermore, although it

is not the intention of any of the involved parties, matrix thinking, projectisation and

stakeholder-centredness can involve a deep ‘us’-‘them’ ethos in which the project seeks

to ‘correct’ the cultures of so-called stakeholders by ‘involving’ them in a pre-specified

project culture. In this sense, the project becomes a microcosm of a well-thinking West

trying to reform the behaviour of the world.

This paper is written within the context of a broader study of cultural chauvinism, or

culturism, in international English language education, and the attendant ideology of

native-speakerism in which the ‘non-native speaker’ Other is constructed as culturally

problematic. In that study I describe how the common discourse of learner-centredness,

as promoted in the English speaking West, has become controlling and culturally

corrective in its prescriptions of how students ought to behave in the classroom

(Holliday 2005).

Stakeholder-centredness and matrix thinking

Curriculum projects which involve funding from foreign agencies present a similar set

of circumstances in the way in which they are constructed by curriculum planners. I

wish to argue that there is a dominant discourse which embodies the following thinking:

‘Let’s take special care to include local stakeholders in a special way because they are

culturally different’. Implied in ‘culturally different’ is the notion that ‘they are

culturally problematic’, which in turn implies that ‘they are culturally deficient’. I base

this view on the way in which ‘local’ stakeholders are referred to in a range of articles

in language in development, where the Self of the curriculum planner is characterised

unproblematically as ‘expatriates’, ‘native speakers’ and ‘experts’ who are always

proficient in the technology, can manage, research, plan, evaluate, organise, train, and

have the power. In contrast, the foreign Other of the stakeholders is always ‘local’,

‘insiders’ and ‘non-native speakers’, who ‘don’t know the technology’, are ‘easily

dominated’ and ‘need to be trained’, treated sensitively, understood, involved, given

‘ownership’, and ‘empowered’. Their cultural difference is constructed as


‘hierarchical’, ‘collectivist’, ‘uncritical’ and ‘undemocratic’ (Holliday 2005:19, citing

Pennycook 1999). Two factors place these descriptions of stakeholders within the

domain of a constructed generalised Other rather than within the domain of actual

characteristics which differentiate particular national groups. First is the startling

regularity with which the same descriptions recur regardless of national groups.

Second, these descriptions are the negative of what a Western Self imagines itself to be.

Pennycook (1998:10-16) traces this myth of the ‘resourceful’, ‘inventive’, ‘organised’

Self to the archetypal narrative of Robinson Crusoe who liberates Man Friday from the

‘savage, ‘native’, and indeed ‘cannibal’ Other of his fellows. Evidence of the

problematic status of these constructions is seen in Kubota’s (2001:17-20) description

of how the same characteristics are used to describe under-achieving schoolchildren in

the US.

Hence, a notion of ‘stakeholder-centredness’, despite the intention to be inclusive and

democratic, is a planning-led, rather than stakeholder-led, desire to control curriculum

behaviour. The particular type of control takes the form of what I will term matrix

thinking, in which, since the advent of projectisation in the late 1980s (Harrison &

Munro 1997:132), the ‘integration of participants’ (Rea-Dickins & Germaine 1998:5-9),

sometimes in the form of ‘counterpart training’, is incorporated into a framework along

with ‘timelines’, ‘outcomes’, ‘indicators of achievement’ and so on. Because in many

ways the matrix becomes a fictional construction. Its power is such that, as with the

English-speaking-Western discourse of ‘learner-centredness’, we find ethnocentric

definitions of ‘autonomy’, ‘esteem’, ‘decision making’ and ‘participation’, which I shall

show examples of below.

I would therefore like to suggest that the term ‘stakeholder’ has itself become tainted

within this dominant discourse, and that curriculum planners need to work with people

in ways which resonate with their realities. Because people can so easily become

outsiders to this projectised discourse, planners need to find ways to appreciate and

understand the counter discourses to which such people are reduced.

In Holliday (2005) I draw on evidence from autobiographical accounts of my own

professional development, the personal accounts of colleagues who have been involved

in curriculum projects as recipients, and qualitative data from studies of curriculum

projects. This data often takes the form of reconstructions, which, I argue elsewhere,

can be very effective in getting at counter discourses which are not always immediately

evident (Holliday 2004). Use of excavations of my own professional history is

indicative of the fact that I feel as implicated as anyone else in the damaging aspects of

this dominant discourse. My intention is not to accuse, but to draw attention. In this

paper there is only room for a few extracts of data which represent only a small part of a

larger thick description. I shall present the data either as examples of the dominant

project discourse or as the counter cultures which find themselves in opposition to it.

Dominant discourse: imagining deficiency

My first extract of data from the dominant discourse is from a report I wrote while

working on the Damascus University ESP project in the early 1980s. Here I describe

my frustrations while collecting information to inform project decisions :


The informants were excessively difficult to get hold of; they often did not have

the information required, other than in the form of personal opinions, anecdotes

and perhaps fabrications to conceal their ignorance; they frequently disagreed

with each other, leading the researcher to continuously seek other ‘more reliable

and in-touch’ informants; and they often did not really grasp the purpose of the

research (if they did, they were more interested in providing their own theories

on how the ESP problem should be solved than providing information). (Cooke

& Holliday 1982:6, cited in Holliday 2005:118)

The informants, who included ‘faculty deans, heads of departments, subject lecturers,

English language teachers’ as well as students (Cooke & Holliday 1982:6), are seen

here as a constraint to the efficiency of the project. The description is unnecessarily

negative. It gives the impression of a deficit local culture, where people are ‘excessively

difficult to get hold of’, where ‘personal opinions’ and ‘anecdotes’ are linked with

‘fabrications’, concealment, unreliability, and disagreement in the sense of lack of

resolve, and, finally, where people lack the mental ability to ‘grasp’ something as

‘straightforward’ as the intentions of the project. At this time I had not yet worked in a

British university where this sort of response to an intrusive investigator would also be

normal, as it would in many walks of life in many cultural settings. In one sense this

extract can be read as an account of the shortcomings of an ‘orthodox’, positivistically

‘scientific’ approach to investigation when applied to people who are getting on with

other things.

Counter culture : Only technical involvement

The second extract is a Serbian teacher’s account of being a recipient of a British

curriculum project in Eastern Europe. She initially experienced a degree of awe at the

technology implicit in the discourse while at the same time refusing to be taken in by

the matrix :

My first encounter with the words ‘stakeholder’, ‘counterpart’, ‘project input

and output’, ‘knock-on effect’, etc., was when I was involved in a British …

project as a ‘local counterpart’. Before the project began I was sent by my

Department to the … [aid agency] to a meeting about project design. I

remember looking at the forms to be filled in and trying to understand them. I

was amazed at the level of detail to be specified and the amount of thinking

ahead that had to be done in terms of the outcomes and effects. It all seemed

extremely professional to me. (Email interview)

She then expresses scepticism at how far the forms, documentation and plans could

relate to the reality of her department :

But I was surprised at the implication in these documents that somehow the

project should have a more far-fetching and long-lasting effect on a larger scale

than I saw it could really have. I remember thinking ‘that must be the way

things are done in the West and that’s why things there are so efficient.’ At the

same time, I felt incapable of contributing much because the world presented in

those documents was very different from the one in my Department.


There is a sense here that she felt she was being overwhelmed by a force which

somehow had interests above and beyond her own and in which she had no place or

ability to contribute. She then analyses the role she imagines the British planners had

seen for her :

Looking back, I now understand that the idea was to involve the ‘stakeholders’

from the beginning of the process of project planning. A good intention, I

agree. But my involvement as a stakeholder was only technical. I had no tools

that would enable me to contribute in that kind of process. And the contours of

the process had already been determined.

Her feeling that the ‘contours’ of the project had ‘already been determined’, despite the

good intentions of the planners, gives the impression that ‘involvement’ of the

participants was only secondary to the processes of the matrix :

I think this is part of a wider process of bureaucratisation of all processes

including educational ones, in the name of greater efficiency. But when there is

a project involving an agency aiming to be very efficient and an institution in a

country where efficiency understood in that sense is not high on the priority list,

then it becomes extremely difficult for people who actually work on the project

to collaborate even if they share a common goal. (Email interview, cited in

Holliday 2005:129)

Whereas the matrix has a singular idea of ‘efficiency’, there may be other concepts of

efficiency that it does not recognise. All in all we can see that she has a deeper

understanding of what is going on than the project planners appear to have. Whereas

they are caught up in the internal processes of the matrix, she is able to stand outside

and see the matrix as an ethnocentric discourse.

Counter culture : Disrupting the existing order

Another example of a counter culture is described in Grimshaw’s qualitative study of a

textbook project in China which he had himself been involved in as a planner and later

returned to for a more critical look. As with the example above, we see the recipients

seeing through the dominant discourse and indeed manipulating it. However, at the

same time, we see the project irresponsibly and perhaps unwarily disturbing indigenous

structures :

It is difficult to determine whether the younger Chinese members of the project

team sincerely believed in or even truly understood the principles of

‘Communicative Language Teaching’. Nevertheless, these young lecturers

were able to manipulate the discourse of CLT in order to obtain power and

influence within the School of International Studies. ... In this way the project

weakened established power-knowledge relationships within the institution and

enabled the project team to side-step some of the usual protocols of the host

institution. (Grimshaw 2002:291-2, cited in Holliday 2005:125)

It may often be the intention of projects to see such disruption as an agent of change;

but this account from Dr Ansari concerning a project he was involved in shows how


important professional integrities can be damaged. He was a university lecturer who

was employed by the funding agency as a textbook writer in a project located in another

university1. However, he became angry when he found himself in a line management

situation, imposed by the project, in which he became junior to another university

colleague he considered his equal :

Ansari said that this was divisive and a clear example of the funding agency

trying to ‘invade’ the university with its own hierarchy. He had only agreed to

work with the project on the basis of collaborating with colleagues from other

universities whom he had always considered his ‘equals’. Furthermore, his

institution wasn’t getting paid; and he had to leave all his teaching behind, to

pile up for his return. His university was not prepared to employ someone else

to take his classes until they got paid by the project. (Project notes, cited in

Holliday 2005:124)

He also never got his travel expenses.

Insiders become outsiders to the dominant discourse

In the same project as Dr Ansari, Dr Rustam was the university academic who was

employed by the funding agency to run the project locally. However, she soon found

herself an outsider to the matrix thinking imposed by the agency. Rustam had already

instituted a qualitative evaluation scheme involving lecturers as researchers :

Rustam described her evaluation scheme as an ongoing process study which

was ‘inclusive’, ‘democratic’ and invited all parties to make contributions at

every point, in which the design of the textbooks would be ‘jointly negotiated’,

and which involved 20 ‘lecturer-researchers’ in carrying out qualitative

observations of their own classes and those of colleagues. (Project notes, cited

in Holliday 2005:120)

However, Gabby, the external evaluator, found this home-grown scheme problematic

because it did not conform to the quantitatively accountable models favoured by matrix

thinking :

Gabby had grave reservations and felt that Dr Rustam’s scheme ‘lacked clarity

and precision’, was ‘not sufficiently thought through’ and made no provision for

a ‘systematic assessment’ of the existing curriculum. She recommended that the

lecturer-researchers should be trained to carry out a quantitative baseline study

which should include systematic classroom research. She requested information

about ‘the composition and responsibilities’ of the lecturer-researchers, how far

they had been ‘exposed to the necessary skills’, and evidence that they

‘understood’ what the evaluation entailed. With regard to the new textbook, she

also wanted to know the ‘criteria for text selection and text evaluation’, the

‘explicit objectives of the textbook’, and whether or not the lecturer-researchers

were aware of them, and whether a representative sample of the texts and tasks

were [sic] being ‘trialled with representative types of classrooms and students’.

She also insisted that the ‘data should be analysed, documented and shown to all

stakeholders’. (Holliday 2005:121)


Rustam’s counter culture response was that Gabby’s approach to evaluation was

inappropriate for the university milieu. Counter to Gabby’s concern that the lecturer-

researchers were not sufficiently trained, in a seminar organised by Rustam to report the

qualitative evaluation findings, there was clear evidence of considerable research

expertise :

Some of the lecturer-researchers made very formal presentations by reading out

from ethnographic observation notes they had made during their own classes or

while watching colleagues trialling draft units of the new textbook. These were

quite meticulous, observant descriptions of both teacher and student behaviour

and methodology. (Holliday 2005:122)

Dr Rustam's outsider position with respect to the matrix was further evidenced in her

conflict with the funding agency about what she considered to be ‘incomprehensible’

project documentation. The response from funding agency personnel was that the

University people were too ‘lazy’ and ‘stuck in their antiquated hierarchies and ivory

towers’ to be bothered to read the documents. Rustam wanted face-to-face meetings;

they said that they did not have time. (Holliday 2005:127)

Solutions

Preventing the matrices of projects from alienating so-called ‘stakeholders’ is bound to

be a complex affair. Improvement is unlikely to result from tweaking the planning

process, as matrix thinking is deeply embedded in the desire to plan efficiently. What is

needed is a raising of awareness of the dangers and a side-step into a new way of

thinking. Elsewhere I call this a ‘Position 2’ – a new alternative to the default, standard

position (Holliday 2005:11).

In Position 1, which, as I suggested at the beginning of this paper, is culturist, and,

where English language is concerned, native-speakerist, planners attempt to solve the

‘problem’ of the Other culture which does not fit by strengthening the matrix and

finding better ways to incorporate people into the matrix. Position 2 would be very

different. It would involve finding better ways of understanding, the appreciation of the

counter cultures which have previously been forced underground by matrix thinking.

On the basis of the sorts of data which I have found particularly valuable in revealing

the issues discussed in this paper, I would suggest critical qualitative research as a

means for increasing this understanding. A good example of this is Wu’s (1992) study

of the way in which curriculum change in a Chinese university is really carried via the

informal conversations of teachers in their homes, away from the formal site of the

curriculum, and Ge’s (2004) study of how teachers in her department in another

Chinese university are not at all as described in the standard Western stereotype.

Of course, what is significant about Wu and Ge is that they are not themselves project

planners, but have been the recipients of the matrix. Considering their critical

contribution, we might also think what the recipients of projects might do to preserve

and present their positions more forcefully. If they subscribe to matrix thinking they

might be trying harder to understand the matrix so that they can join it – which would in

the long term result in a loss of the professional identity they brought to the situation.

The more critical stance might be what Jacob (1996) refers to as ‘intermediate actions


of resistance’. These would comprise ‘marking territories’, ‘reconciling with the past’,

‘speaking against the grain’, ‘moving to centre stage from the periphery’, ‘holding back

technology’ and ‘breaking silences’. How this can be done is exemplified in the actions

of Rustam and her colleagues above.

They mark territories by establishing an evaluation scheme which is meaningful to local

colleagues and establishing significant events such as seminars in which local

colleagues present the ideas of the scheme. They reconcile with the past by making

sure the scheme is rooted in and continues to grow from existing cultures. They speak

against the grain by speaking out against the way in which funding agency personnel,

such as Gabby, represent the matrix, and by establishing anti-matrix ideas in reports and

seminar presentations. These institutional actions also enable them to move to centre

stage from the periphery. They hold back technology by resisting the timelines,

documents, and hierarchies of the matrix and by resisting Gabby’s imported evaluation

scheme. They break silences by speaking out in all these areas. (Holliday 2005:170).

A divided place

In conclusion, the above discussion needs to be set within the context of the world

unfortunately being a divided place where a Western Self, despite sometimes the very

best of intentions, cannot help but try to correct the cultures of an imagined Other. In

the dominant discourses of change, an apparent inclusivity sometimes takes the form of

a matrix of cultural control. There is no question that there is competent resistance to

the matrices of the English speaking West. However, at a deeper level, why is it that

teachers, trainers and curriculum developers across the world appear to subscribe to

notions of autonomy, critical thinking, participation and communication which are set

up by the matrix and deny their intelligence?

Note 1 The true identity of this project and all the people involved have been anonymised.

References

Cooke, T.M. and Holliday, A.R. 1982. Damascus University ESP Project, Research

Findings, 1980-2. Unpublished report.

Ge, J. 2004. An investigation of perceptions and attitudes held by Chinese language

teachers toward western influence on English language teaching in China.

Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Language Studies, Canterbury Christ Church

University College.

Grimshaw, T.A. 2002. Discursive struggle : Linguistic imperialism and resistance on

Chinese university campuses. Unpublished PhD thesis, Department of Language

Studies, Canterbury Christ Church University


Harrison, M. and Munro, H. 1997. Project administration. In G.Abbott and

M.Beaumont (eds.), The Development of ELT: the Dunford Seminars 1978-1993,

131-133. (English Language Teaching Review.) Hemel Hempstead : Prentice Hall

and the British Council.

Holliday, A.R. 2004. The value of reconstruction in revealing hidden or counter

cultures. Journal of Applied Linguistics 1(3):275-294.

Holliday, A.R. 2005. The Struggle to Teach English as an International

Language. Oxford : Oxford University Press.

Jacob, G.P. 1996. Coming to terms with imperialism : Safeguarding local knowledge

and experience in ELT curriculum development. Unpublished paper, Department of

English, University of Pune, India.

Kubota, R. 2001. Discursive construction of the images of US classrooms. TESOL

Quarterly 35(1): 9-37.

Pennycook, A. 1998. English and the Discourses of Colonialism. London :

Routledge.

Pennycook, A. 1999. Development, culture and language : Ethical concerns in a

postcolonial world. In J.Shaw, D.Lubelska and M.Noullet (eds), Partnership and

Interaction : Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Language and

Development, Hanoi, Vietnam, October 13-15 1999, 3-22. Bangkok : Asian Institute

of Technology.

(Also accessible at www.languages.ait.ac.th/hanoi_proceedings/pennycook.htm.)

Rea-Dickins, P. and Germaine, K.P. 1998. The price of everything and the value of

nothing : Trends in language programme evaluation. In K.Germaine and P.Rea-

Dickins (eds), Managing Evaluation and Innovation in English Language

Teaching : Building Bridges, 3-20. London : Addison Wesley Longman.

Wu, Z. 1992. Teachers’ ‘knowledge’ and curriculum change : A critical study of

teachers’ exploratory discourse in a Chinese university. Unpublished PhD thesis,

Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, Lancaster University.

Nigussie Resistance in EAP classrooms 138

Chapter 13

Resistance in ‘English for Academic Purposes’ classrooms at the

Ethiopian Civil Service College

Nigussie Negash

Introduction

This chapter is based on classroom research carried out at the Ethiopian Civil Service

College (ECSC) between 2001 and 2003. It offers an explanation of resistance to

innovation grounded in sociocultural analysis of the teaching-learning process. This

sociocultural stance emerges from the influence of ‘poststructuralist perspectives on

language and a radical schooling view of language teaching as a political act’

(Canagarajah 2001:208). This perception has led to a critical position regarding the

‘neutral’ or ‘universal’ view of English language teaching (ELT) and methodology

transfer. Educational practice (including innovation) is not, in fact, a neutral action

and individuals are not just helpless subjects of the culture or institution to which they

belong. Some studies (summarised in Table 1) have already explored the influence of

social context on imported ELT content and methodology.

Table 1: Summary of studies on resistance

Research Setting Findings

Chick 1996 South Africa

Resistance to communicative language teaching; culture

of collusion to maintain teacher volubility and student

taciturnity in classroom interaction

Canagarajah 2001 Sri Lanka Resistance to culture-specific contents and dialogue in

imported ELT materials

Shamim 1996 Pakistan Resistance to active involvement in negotiation and

collaboration influenced by wider societal culture

Tewelde 2000 Eritrea

Teachers’ responses to communicative language teaching

grounded in political, economic and sociocultural and

institutional factors

From different angles, these studies provide evidence that forces inside and outside

the classroom operate against new ELT teaching-learning practices. My chapter

builds on these findings. It gives an account of the responses of students of English

for Academic Purposes (EAP) to adult learning principles and how classroom and

institutional cultures influence the teaching-learning process.

Classroom/institutional cultures and resistance to innovation

Breen (2001) in his seminal article provides a detailed theoretical analysis of

classroom culture. The present chapter tries to illuminate with data some of the

characteristics of the classroom community which Breen describes.

One important feature of the classroom is that it is interactive. In the classroom,

things get done mostly through verbal and non-verbal interaction. Depending on the

tacit teaching and learning model underlying it, classroom interaction can be located


‘on a continuum from ritualised, predictable, phatic communication to dynamic,

unpredictable, diversely interpreted communication’ (Breen 2001:129). Whatever

form it takes, the nature of interaction is overtly or covertly accepted by the

participants. It allows the learners to appropriate knowledge and skills. Conversely,

the same mutual interaction can lead to inhibition and marginalisation of learner

participation in classroom discourse. For instance, a traditional teacher-fronted

classroom is characterised by what Wenger (1998:203) calls ‘perpetual separation of

knowledge production and knowledge adoption.’ This leads to another characteristic

which Breen (2001:131) calls asymmetry in interaction. Linell and Luckmann

(1991:4) broadly define asymmetry as ‘various sorts of inequivalencies in dialogue

processes.’ In education, this can be seen as an imbalance in the ownership of, and

access to knowledge naturally found in institutional discourse. Classroom asymmetry

arises from institutional roles and duties allocated to students and teachers. As

Holliday (1994:26) observes :

In more static situations, people's roles in organisations or society are

relatively fixed and secure. Individuals base their identity on where they are

placed within a hierarchy or social structure, and the culture surrounding their

role supports this identity.

My intuition is that power relationships in the ECSC are typical of those that give rise

to social hierarchies in classrooms. The prevalence of IRF exchanges in classroom

discourse (Linell & Luckmann 1991) arises from institutional goals that determine

roles and identities in discourse (Drew & Heritage 1992).

Another characteristic of the classroom is its tendency to be conservative and

normative. Wright (1992:77-78) points out that classroom discourse is characterised

by norms and procedures that have become ‘grooved’ through repeated use for many

generations. These are like habits which every competent member of the classroom

performs unconsciously. The discoursal routines provide participants with

‘contextualisation cues’ (Gumperz 1992), something familiar to build on in

negotiating meaning in the immediate context of interaction. These norms also

govern the ‘academic’ and ‘social’ purposes of the classroom (Wright 1992). These

norms, mutually negotiated and implicitly held, evaluate and sanction the teachers’

and students’ participation and contributions. It is this very nature of practice that

also constrains the individual’s freedom to negotiate. According to Breen (2001) the

source of resistance to change in the classroom emanates from this conservative and

normative characteristic.

A genuine culture is one in which its members seek security and relative harmony in a

self-satisfactory milieu. As such, things take time to develop. Anything that the

group perceives as change will also take time to be absorbed or it will be resisted

(Breen 2001:132).

My suspicion is that having participated in classroom/institutional practices for so

many years, ECSC adult students come to the classroom community with well-formed

identities as learners. If the practices of formal education in the primary and

secondary schools are replicated in ECSC, it will not take the adult students long to

settle down. They can very easily socialise each other to the present task of the

‘community of practice’ (Wenger 1998). They also invest time in finding out what


the goals of the new institution are. These past practices may contribute to students’

‘cultural expectations’ (Cortazzi 1990) or assumptions about teaching-learning and

the teacher-student role relationship (Wright 1992). Past practice influences

investment in present learning and can lead to resistance to new classroom practice. I

feel that if students meet new practices, such as solving problems in group work in the

classroom, ECSC students are likely to have to learn these new practices or they may

even resist them.

Implications for teaching and research

The above analysis suggests that it is practical to exploit the natural features of

classroom discourse referred to as ‘IRF exchanges’ (Mercer 2001:245) where ‘I’

stands for initiation, ‘R’ for response and ‘F’ for feedback. IRF has variations on a

cline from recitation to dialogue (see Figure 1).

Recitation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dialogue

Figure 1: The IRF continuum

Depending on the extent of support which learners need, a sensitive teacher can move

between more support and guidance to less guidance or learner independence. Hence,

there are varieties of IRF formats between recitation and dialogue that the teacher and

students can explore. Introducing adult learning procedures offers us the opportunity

to move the IRF pattern towards a more collaborative symmetrical dialogue (van Lier

2001). Attaining this demands that the teacher should engage in inquiry based

teaching. In this chapter, I am presenting such an attempt in EAP classrooms at the

Ethiopian Civil Service College.

As an alternative to conventional action research (Elliot 1991), I have taken an

exploratory approach (Allwright 1997, 1999) to introduce new adult learning

procedures within the complex classroom and institutional practices of ECSC. The

idea of exploratory teaching has evolved from the teacher research movement (Edge

& Richards 1993), which seeks to encourage teachers to include inquiry in their

teaching routines. My approach to classroom research as an educator is not purely for

the sake of academic research. I began with a strong personal commitment to learn

about the ECSC culture of teaching and learning, in which my own practice is

situated, and to help my students improve their own learning practices.

From 2001 to 2003, I tried out various teaching-learning procedures based on

andragogy, the art and science of helping adults learn (Brookfield 1986, Knowles

1990). I present here two exploratory teaching projects on collaborative learning with

Law Faculty students (see Figure 2). The question I set out to answer in these projects

was what the effect on students’ perceptions and practice of active/collaborative

learning procedures in an EAP classroom would be.

Though the EAP materials were prescribed institutionally, it was not easy for me to

rely on them completely for content and teaching-learning procedures. I felt that

implementing the textbook tasks simply like a classroom technician would not allow

me to respond to the students’ perception of their own needs. Thus, I modified the


recommended task procedures and negotiated with the students new procedures such

as self-reflection, negotiation, and collaboration to facilitate learning.

Project 1 : Collaborative learning in

English for Law class, January-April

2002

• Change of setting and finding a

research issue

• Initial group writing task (first

encounter with students’ practice)

• Group summary writing and

reflection on process

• Peer evaluation of individual

writing and reflection

• End of term evaluation

�

�

Project 2 : Collaborative writing in

Sophomore English class, May-

August 2002

• Evaluation of last term activities

(first session)

• Establishing classroom rules (a

proposed learning contract given to

students to sign)

• Peer evaluation of individual essay

(focus on outline and draft)

• Group project

�

Ways of finding

out (part of

content and

procedure)

1) Group

discussion in class

and office

2) Informal talks

(group and

individual)

3) Written

reflections on

activities and

process

4) Observation

Figure 2: Summary of research activities

I generated data from normal teaching and learning activities. Also I adopted a

thematic analysis of classroom incidents and critical moments from students’ oral or

written reflections and interviews. My presentation of findings here does not follow

the chronology in which the research unfolded in the field.

Findings and discussion

The students’ responses to the new teaching-learning procedures were mixed : some

were positive and others were negative. For lack of space, my chapter focuses on

understanding the latter, i.e. the roots of resistance to the kind of collaborative

learning which I was trying to introduce.

New practice disturbing normality

The ECSC students’ responses to the new teaching-learning procedures revealed the

influence of previous practice (Cortazzi 1990) on present teaching-learning activities.

The working relationship which the students had established with their previous

teacher worked as a negative precedent for the collaborative learning I was following.

As one of the students (Las) observed I disturbed their normal life :


Las : In the beginning we were irritated with your pressurising us to get into

groups and do this or that. We felt we were bullied, comparing you with the

other teacher, like students normally do this. To speak honestly, now we have

understood how important it is and we wish that we began this kind of activity

earlier. Meaning our dispute in groups has showed us some results. To tell

you the truth, last term, we used to get the assignments done by other students.

Some of us would ask seniors or English language majors. Our lack of

personal effort created a problem in writing in the exam and we complained so

much about the exam being difficult. Our results in the exam and the exams

did not match. So now students are beginning to be interested in learning

English seriously ... (Intv/Feb 02)

An important concern for the students at first was that, in comparison with their

previous teacher, I was very demanding of them. I was a newcomer to this

established community of classroom practice. This corroborates one of the findings

of Budd and Wright (1992:223-224) : from their collaborative research into the

implementation of active learning, the authors note that a teacher may attain some

degree of normality with his or her students, which is then disturbed when another

teacher comes in. Although some of my students did eventually recognise the value

of group writing, there were others who wanted me to maintain the practice of their

previous teachers.

I felt in the circumstances that it would be irresponsible for me to underestimate the

students and approach my teaching duty leniently. I therefore had a moral obligation

to mobilise classroom practice so as to enhance learning or to challenge students to

seek alternatives and to take action.

Induction by previous students and specialist subject lecturers

Through informal apprenticeship, previous students inducted new ECSC students into

the established student culture. This informal induction worked against my new

practice, both as a precedent and as a future obstacle. As one of the students (Lmh)

indicated, they had discovered what was worth fighting for in the college and

therefore they prioritised their actions accordingly:

Lmh : You work very hard, but we are not serious. Senior students told us not

to bother about English that much, because whether we study or not we cannot

change our result. By observing each other in class and our performance we

know who will get A’s and B’s. But C is for everybody. We know about you,

our teachers, from our friends ... (Intv/Jan 02)

It seems that ECSC students were already very well acquainted with status differences

between the various curriculum subjects. They also understood the differences

between the assessment practices of different departments and lecturers. The students

had already realised what was worth investing in while they were in the ECSC and in

English language classrooms. Among the competing academic discourses in the

ECSC, the EAP course and its new methodology were marginalised. The majority of

subject lecturers relied on a transmission style of teaching; this seemed to influence

the students interpretation of the innovative approach of collaborative learning as an

‘alternative’ mode of learning. As the following comment by one of the lecturers


(LsnL) indicates, lecturers did not seem to trust group discussion leading to individual

thinking :

LsnL : I actually have a problem with group work or discussion. It creates

dependency culture. You can see it in their answer to exam questions. There is

no difference. It’s boring to read the same thing from forty-five students’ paper.

(Intv/Aug 02)

Like LsnL, the majority of subject lecturers rarely used group discussion in class. In

fact, it was the students who appeared to initiate the use of group discussions in their

informal study groups. Any form of group work which the subject lecturers asked

students to carry out was to be undertaken as an assignment outside class. These

activities rarely required students to give presentations in regular lecture sessions.

The lecturers revealed that, even when they conducted a student presentation, it would

be one individual student who dominated the task.

Because of resistance from the dominant regime of practice, my ideas and principles

of collaborative learning struggled to gain currency. Here is what one of my students

(Lbd) reflected:

Lbd : You tell us to do the projects in group. The students know it doesn’t

work. Because of the way the other lecturers assess group assignments. They

don’t mark critically. Usually they take very short time to read what we have

spent so many days and hours. In addition, the marks are given collectively

for those who worked hard those who did not. Usually we kill time disputing

issues and when we try to accommodate the other people’s ideas the grades

become very low. Even those who could score A’s if they worked on their

own could be given C grades because of the students they are grouped with.

This makes us dislike these group projects, although we know your aim.

(Intv/Jul 02)

Lbd’s comment reveals that what I tried to implement in my own classroom was

overwhelmed by the dominant regime of practice in the institution. We can see from

the views expressed by the teachers and students that resistance to group work can be

attributed to a persistent institutional view that learning is exclusively individual and

has to be competitive. Contrary to the mind-centred psychological theory, cultures in

a certain educational context seem to influence why and how the students learn

(Sullivan 2000). Although some English teachers were trying to use group discussion

as an alternative mode of teaching, many of the subject lecturers were not

encouraging it. They felt that students copied each others’ ideas and that this

militated against the development of the individual thinking that is demanded by real

life and the workplace. However, if used properly, collaborative learning does not

inhibit the development of individual critical thinking.

The social hierarchy of the classroom

This study also reveals power relationships in the classroom. It corroborates Breen’s

(2001:131) observation that classroom culture exhibits an asymmetrical relationship

between the teacher and students as well as among the students. The classroom

group’s insistence on maintaining the existing social hierarchy gets in the way of


collaborative learning. For instance, some students who were in favour of group

writing, such as Lar, Lch and Lbf below, complained about the strong greed of

students for high grades which inhibited group writing :

Just as I left the class today three students (Lar, Lch and Lbf) followed me and

told me that what I was doing was the right thing. However, they said that

they had already discussed and it was only those students who had been to

Colleges who didn’t want to exercise because they had been to College before

and felt they had enough knowledge and skill in English to need anybody’s

help. They therefore asked me to continue the group activities because it

would help them to develop their capabilities. (FN/Feb 02)

The above comment reveals that the students appeared to define their identity and

status in terms of their performance or the grades which they received. They

construed the classroom group as being composed of some students who were more

knowledgeable and some students who were less knowledgeable. The group activities

were seen as assisting the latter. Implicitly, the established educational culture

divided teaching and learning into what Wenger (1998) calls ‘production and

adoption.’

Although mutual engagement can be a vehicle for sharing the ownership of meaning,

it can also be a vehicle for denying negotiability and can thus result in non-

participation. If production and adoption become consistently separable, the

distinction between them becomes an issue of marginality. Members whose

contributions are never adopted develop an identity of non-participation that

progressively marginalises them. Their experience becomes irrelevant because it

cannot be asserted and recognised as a form of competence (Wenger 1998:203).

This dichotomous view of their being ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ led to collective work

being perceived as giving undeserved reward to weak group members. As a result,

the high performers made minimal effort in group writing tasks compared with the

individual writing tasks. As one of the high achievers (Lbr) indicated, their

performance on individual writing tasks was higher than on the group writing tasks :

Lbr : My results in group writing are lower than my individual performance.

N : How come? Are we not talking about cumulative effect of each member’s

effort here? I mean I expect every member to put in maximum effort.

Lbr : That’s the problem. I don't give maximum devotion. I mean why

should I sacrifice myself for the others? Somebody has to get what he

deserves. (Intv/Feb 02)

Lbr also observed that the idealistic view of education which a student may bring

when first arriving at the institution is likely to change once they have adapted to the

competitive culture which they encounter there :

Lbr : When I first came here I was thinking about studying for the knowledge.

But after mid-term of the first year I learnt that students are only interested in

the grade. I was cheated. So the next time I changed ... Grade is important.

If you are not a high achiever even nobody greets you. If you have the grade


everybody is around you. Students study about other people’s results.

(Intv/Feb 02)

Students resisted group work because it conflicted with the individual interests that

arose from the institutional/classroom culture. Their exposure to the competitive and

individualistic academic culture militated against group learning and development.

The upshot was that while the high achievers fought to maintain their place in the

social hierarchy, others would struggle to join this elite group or would gradually

come to accept their place as low performers.

Similar to Withers’ (2000) findings in classrooms in Zimbabwe, the few students in

the ECSC classroom who felt they did not have any problem with English favoured

individual writing. The high achievers saw themselves as being exploited by their

classmates. The capable students conspired to maintain the status quo by making

minimal contributions to the group task but giving everything to the individual task,

thus maintaining their status at the expense of their own and others’ learning.

According to Breen (2001:132), innovation is resisted because practice is normally

conservative. People resist change because it disturbs the security that routines give

them or it clashes with individual interests within the social relationship. In a context

that is not devoted to learning, it is the institutional practice itself that members learn,

not the subject content (Wenger 1998).

Contrary to the individualist stance on agency held by conventional cognitive and

adult learning theories (Knowles 1990), the findings of this study indicate the strength

of the sociocultural agency. ECSC students’ responses seem similar to the kind of

resistance which Shamim (1996) encountered in trying to use a new teaching

approach that required students’ active engagement. However, unlike Shamim’s

group, my students began positively but then the dominant institutional culture or

practice obstructed the emergence of a new learning culture that valued students’

investment in learning English. Since it takes a long time for a culture of learning to

change, the outcome of my two projects does not necessarily indicate that ECSC

students or people in any context will not learn new practices.

Students sabotaging innovation for ‘safe practice’

ECSC students’ response to innovation also reflected what I term ‘safe practice’. On

the analogy of ‘safe talk’ (Chick 1996), safe practice refers to the phenomenon of

students colluding to avoid the challenges of learning and new practice. Students’

resistance was not always directly expressed. For instance, when I gave them a group

project (Project 2 in Figure 2), they sabotaged my attempt to change the established

practice. To maximise every group member’s learning, I demanded that they

implement the principles and procedures of collaboration. I asked them to organise

themselves into groups, allocate tasks and roles for each member and submit their

work plan. My observation and post-course discussions (formal and informal

interviews) indicated that after a two term project on collaborative learning, students

still maintained their own survivalist practice that I had observed in their first group

writing assignment, because this was ‘safer’ for them. Their priority was not to learn

per se, but to avoid the risk of engaging in a new practice. They resorted to the

practice that suited completing the task without fuss and getting the results they


wanted at the same time. As I recorded in my diary, the first thing that the students

refused to do was to make their practice transparent to me :

Sometimes, students inform me the time they would discuss and I turn up to

find nobody there. Some told me that students could not meet or they

discussed in their dormitories at night. One group left saying they had

finished. Then I asked the other group (Lan, Lag, Lds, Lx) if I could join

them, they told me that they were not ready for my visit, and with that

unwillingness I had to leave them alone. Only two groups submitted their

project outline and task allocation to each of their members. Secondly, all the

groups seemed to avoid my observation on different pretexts and I could not

record the group interactions that happened here to say how collaborative and

learning-oriented the project was, apart form the accounts I obtained from the

students after the course. (FN/Aug 02)

The students’ reasons for engaging in such a practice were the same as those which

we have discussed earlier : their concerns with time constraint and with survival by

working for grades. My conversation with one of the members of the Law group

(Lds) confirms this :

Lds : We got together and shared parts to write on according to the outline we

submitted to you. That was what you asked us to do, I think. For the strong

members, parts that were more difficult were given and the easier parts to the

weaker members. We combined what we wrote, got it typed.

N : How successful was this in terms of collaborative learning principles we

talked about in class?

Lds : Since usually papers are given when exams approach, we had shortage

of time. Also the weaker students had to be helped by the better group to

improve the quality of the paper. So the degree of participation was not the

same. (Intv/Mar 03)

Like Lds, other students disclosed that due to a shortage of time they just slightly

reshaped papers which they had already submitted for another course, instead of

writing an original paper for the English course. Students complained that doing the

kind of collaborative project I required was difficult, especially when they were under

pressure from assignments for the other subjects and preparing for examinations in

five courses in three months. Also, since the weaker members took a long time to

read and write, one or two of the stronger members in the group wrote the paper. The

following comment by Lbl reveals how expediency was given priority over learning :

Lbl : To save time we copied the paper for the other course and gave you. The

papers were Legal Skills paper reshuffled. Also each student has his own

commitment outside the College. So people say just do it, we know you can

write better than us. Although some contributed not all participate in writing.

Major organisation done by strong student. (Intv/Apr 03)

As their concern was just the product, they copied the previous work they had

submitted to another teacher. In this way, the EAP classroom community’s practice

did not allow for an equitable contribution from all members. This limited the

majority to marginal participation in practising the target language. In classroom and


institutional cultures that encouraged mere display of existing knowledge as a

prerequisite for gaining good grades, the majority who had not mastered the target

language lacked confidence to take risks and to openly experiment with the language.

ECSC students’ ‘product approach’ to education was contrary to the enabling aim of

pedagogy.

Contrary to our agreement in class that they would evaluate each other, the students

frankly told me that they decided to give each other high marks. This made me

suspicious and led me to enquire further about their claims. This was how one of the

students put the reason for their insistence on old practice :

N : But in your evaluation you are each member equal mark and very high

mark.

Lds : Lah and I did the evaluation of the group members. Then we got

together and told the others to give equal marks to all members, because I

don’t want to my friend’s result to be affected by my evaluation of his

performance. Anyways we thought that our performance would be

discriminated by the final examination we were to take later. (Intv/Mar 03)

On many occasions, the high achievers complained about being exploited by their

weaker partners, who reaped the rewards without making any contribution.

Furthermore, the teacher was usually blamed for making life difficult for them by

asking them to work with weak students. However, when they were given the

opportunity as insiders to show what each member had contributed, they shied away

from doing this. They protected each other against the teacher :

Lah : Most of the time you want to understand everything they want to reserve

for themselves. For example, when we do group work you want to be present

here. We want some of the err to keep some of the methods secret. The

reason is we use some short (laughs) the way we do it always. You see the

problem is you want us to participate. But we wanted to take the work of

others because they were not much of help. They agree to our plan. (Intv/Apr

03)

The students established group solidarity against my collaborative learning agenda, as

it threatened the way they typically did group assignments. I demanded equity of

participation and learning opportunity from the activity for all members. This

conflicted with their agenda of efficient completion of the paper for good marks.

With all members’ obvious consent, the ones who were known in the class to have

been scoring good results took the responsibility and the others were left out of the

process. They adopted a pragmatic approach, with their own agenda overriding my

demands for collaborative learning. Since this project came at the end of a term,

before the final assessment and grading, students waited until their grades had been

announced before they told me frankly what they thought about my teaching

approach. They wanted to be sure that I would not find out about their hidden practice

before their grades had been finalised. Due to this mistrust, being two-faced seems to

be part of classroom life. Pretending is a means for the students to secure their

grades, which in turn secures access to resources and power in society. The students

acknowledge that the degree or diploma certificate offers passage to high office in the

government. As one Law student (Lam) reflected, a number of good letter grades


promises an important government post. He said that attending degree courses is a

way of ‘reducing the number of bosses in the workplace’ (FN/Jul 02). This means

that students come to the ECSC with the agenda of getting a diploma in order to

advance to a post in the civil service.

This is further evidence that classroom practice has a public and a private face or

inner and outer circles to which the teacher can have access only through informal

means or a good rapport with some of the members. Indeed, we have a glimpse of the

teacher’s authority being challenged directly and indirectly (even though in other

circumstances students insist on being told what to do). Even in traditional

educational practice, the community of practice confers authority on teachers

authority and at the same time limits what they can do. This is because the

community in which teachers participate gives them roles and identities. Individuals

assume their established identity in the community by taking up these roles and

carrying out their tasks accordingly. If they do not conform, they are not trusted and

their ideas lose currency. If teachers use their authority in a way that threatens the

existence of the community, then their authority can be taken away or subverted.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that the true nature of practice is revealed in its response

to new practice. As reported in different sections of this chapter, ECSC students’

resistance to collaborative learning procedures was grounded in classroom and

institutional practices. ECSC students resisted group writing because it was against

the established social hierarchy of the classroom and the individualistic and

competitive institutional culture. Moreover, they valued performance more than

learning, because grades are sources of social status in this context. The ECSC

students’ responses to new practice also characterised what I have termed safe

practice. They develop safe practice as a result of straddling various competing

communities of practice. Depending on how these communities relate to each other,

students value and prioritise their identification and investment in gaining competence

in each of them. They make a cost benefit analysis in terms of the social goals and

academic goals of the classroom community or beyond. English language learning is

marginalised in this social configuration. Hence, contrary to the conventional view in

the literature on adult learning, that adults seek to be self-directing or collaborating,

students’ goals emanate from membership in classroom and other cultures.

Another lesson I have drawn from these projects is that what an individual teacher, as

an agent of change, can do in the classroom is limited. A bottom-up approach has to

be supported by the institution and professional communities. There is a need for

continuity and consistency in the learning environment for the new teaching-learning

procedures to find space. The findings also indicate that it could be more appropriate

to expose students to new practices when they first arrive in an institution, at the

transition phase. It seems that students need more time and exposure to new ideas in

order to understand and abandon their unproductive practices.


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Ahmed, Almaz and Altshul Evaluation of a language programme 151

Chapter 14

Ethiopian teachers’ evaluation of a language improvement

programme

Ahmed Siraj Gofa, Almaz Baraki and Judith Altshul Background to the English Language Improvement Programme

The Ministry of Education (MoE) of Ethiopia launched the English Language Improvement Programme (ELIP) in 2002, with funding from international donors, with the objective of raising the English language ability of both English language teachers and teachers of other subjects through the medium of English. The ultimate aims were to enable all teachers : a) to do their jobs effectively (particularly English medium teachers) by communicating effectively with their students b) to have access to knowledge and information available in English, to make use of modern information and communication technology opportunities and to interact with their peers through this international language which is also an important medium of instruction. From the outset, the Ministry of Education made it clear that the principal beneficiaries of the programme were to be the teachers themselves, not the students. However, teachers had not requested this training; it was imposed upon them by the government. The training materials were designed to focus on the interests and professional concerns of teachers (particularly teachers of English). These issues were discussed using group work and pair work. The methodology was therefore learner-centred and quite unlike the approach with which participants were familiar (listening to lectures). As the programme progressed, the participants found that this methodology itself offered a useful model of language teaching and learning. The focus of the programme thus broadened in a subtle way from being purely one of language development to include teaching methodology as well. International Key English Language Training Advisers (IKELTAs) came from UK universities to train Ethiopian Key English Language Training Advisers (KELTAs). The KELTAs, in turn, trained Key English Language Trainers (KELTs). These KELTs are now, in their turn, training English Language Trainees (ELTs). The teachers who were trained as KELTAs were required to be highly proficient in English. Ideally, they were also to hold an MA or a PhD in TEFL or a related field, or a certificate of post-graduate or post-experience training from various colleges, teacher training institutes and high schools. The KELTs, meanwhile, were selected by the Regional Education Bureau (REB) in each region. They were required to be BA holders who had been teaching English in high schools for at least 5 years.


The ELTs included three categories of teacher : • English teachers trained to certificate level (i.e. with one year of training after

grade 10) who teach in first cycle primary schools – grades 1-4. • English teachers trained to diploma level (i.e. with three years of training after

grade 10), who teach in second cycle primary schools - grades 5-8 - or in secondary schools.1

• teachers trained to diploma level who are teaching subjects other than English in grades 5-8.2

Although indigenous languages are mainly used as the media of instruction in grades 5-8, teachers in these two categories need to improve their English in order to develop themselves and to benefit from reading English print materials and listening to radio or TV broadcasts in English and using the internet. All the KELTAs, KELTs and ELTs are practitioners and, at the same time, are trainees in the programme. In order to deal with the large numbers of trainees, training was carried out according to the cascade model. (See Figure 1.) In the first cohort, there were 6 IKELTAs to train 56 KELTAs. These people trained 783 KELTs who in turn trained 12,040 ELTs. By 2005 there were almost 200 KELTAs, approximately 1,300 KELTs and around 60,000 ELTs.

Figure 1 : Cascade model

Eventually, it is planned that all 89,874 first cycle primary school teachers, 53,447 second cycle primary school teachers, 11,767 first cycle secondary school teachers and 3,301 second cycle secondary school teachers – from both government and non-government schools – will be trained (Ministry of Education 2005).

Some of the key players in the project are : • Federal Ministry of Education, Ethiopia • British Council • Pat McLaughlin, lead consultant • College of St Mark and St John, Plymouth, which provided the IKELTAs and

which jointly prepared the training materials • Leeds Metropolitan University, which jointly prepared the training materials

IKELTAs

to train

KELTAs to train

ELTS

STUDENTS

ELTs to teach

KELTs to train


• Regional Education Bureaux (REBs) • ELIP Committee. ELIP is a 200-hour training programme in three consecutive phases. See Table 1 for details.

Table 1 : Phases, materials and duration

Phase Training materials Duration

1 Face-to-face Booklet I + Cassette 1

60 hours (5 hours per day for 12 days)

2 Distance Booklet II + Cassette 2

80 hours (50 hours individual practice + 30 hours face-to-face)

3 Face-to-face Booklet III + Cassette 3

60 hours (5 hours per day for 12 days)

The teachers were required to take part in the training during their summer holiday and winter semester break. There was no direct financial benefit for them and there was no increase in their professional status within the education system as a result of participating in the training. Evaluation of the programme

An evaluation of ELIP was first carried out during the pilot stage; the results were apparently generally encouraging. A limited study of the impact of ELIP training on teachers of grades 1-4 in Addis Ababa was then undertaken by Baraki and Altshul in 2005; this remains unpublished. Meanwhile, Siraj looked at the attitudes towards ELIP training of teachers of grades 5-8 in Jimma Zone of Oromiya Region (Siraj 2005). The present chapter is based primarily on the Jimma survey, with some additional material from the Addis Ababa research. The teachers who participated in the training came from different parts of the country, had different degrees of experience and qualifications and possessed different expectations and attitudes. The present study, therefore, explores teachers’ reactions towards the training programme in general, the training materials and the training approach. Respondents were also asked to evaluate the practicality and usefulness of the training from their perspective.

The principal research instrument was a questionnaire with 36 items. This was completed by a sample of 70 informants, of whom 30 were teachers of English and 40 were teachers of other subjects drawn from among the 120 programme participants in Jimma. These 70 questionnaire respondents thus had to represent the whole population of 12,040 participants in the first training cohort. In addition, fifteen informants from Jimma and Addis Ababa were interviewed.

Questionnaire findings

The questionnaire generated information regarding participants’ views of the objectives of the ELIP training, the impact of the training, the materials and


methodology used in the training, the trainers, the timing and duration of the training, issues relating to the administration of the programme and miscellaneous matters. Participants’ views of the objectives of ELIP training are summarised in Table 2. Clear majorities of both English ELTs and other subject ELTs felt that the programme objectives were clear (Proposition 2.1) and that they were achievable (Proposition 2.2). However, whilst the English ELTs were unanimous or almost unanimous in this regard, only approximately two thirds of the other subject ELTs shared this opinion.

Table 2 : Participants’ views of objectives of ELIP training

Proposition % of English ELTs agreeing

+ strongly agreeing (N = 30)

% of other subject ELTs

agreeing + strongly agreeing

(N = 40)

2.1) Purpose and objectives of ELIP training [are] clear

100 70

2.2) I feel objectives and goals are achievable through this training

90 65

Participants’ views of the impact of training are summarised in Table 3. Majorities of the English ELTs and the other subject ELTs felt that their participation in the programme had had a positive impact on their ability to learn independently (Proposition 3.1), on their competence in English (Proposition 3.2) and on their teaching skills (Proposition 3.3).

Table 3 : Participants’ views of impact of training





(N = 40)

3.1) ELIP training encourages independent learning [by] trainees

100 75

3.2) I feel that my English improved because of course

97 63

3.3) Skills I acquired will help me teach better

97 78

3.4) Programme is appropriate for helping improve my English

60 73

3.5) I feel that my English didn’t improve because of course

0 13

However, there are marked differences between the opinions of the English ELTs and those of their colleagues who teach other subjects. Unanimously, or nearly so, the English ELTs felt that their language and teaching skills had improved as had their ability to learn independently. On the other hand, fewer than two thirds of the other subject ELTs noticed improvement in their English language competence, three quarters felt that they had become more independent learners and under four fifths believed that their teaching ability had benefited. Only three fifths of English teachers believed that the programme was appropriate for them to improve their English (Proposition 3.4). Taken together with the response to Proposition 3.2, the implication appears to be that participants recognised an


improvement in their English but that they did not entirely attribute this improvement to the way in which the programme was designed and delivered. More of the non-English teachers, on the other hand, rated the programme highly (73%) whilst only 63% felt that their English had improved; this suggests that the non-English specialists tended to admire the programme even if they did not benefit from it. On the other hand, all, or almost all, respondents rejected the idea that their English had not improved because of the course (Proposition 3.5). It is not easy to understand how this response can be reconciled with the differences between responses to Propositions 3.2 and 3.4 which we have noted.

Table 4 : Participants’ views of training materials and methodology

Proposition

% of English ELTs

agreeing + strongly

agreeing (N = 30)



(N = 40)

4.1) Activities encourage cooperation and discussion during training

97 85

4.2) Instructions to activities are clear

96 80

4.3) Tasks encourage critical thinking during training

93 93

4.4) Tasks involve both trainers and trainees

93 73

4.5) Organisation and sequence of teaching material is appropriate

83 63

4.6) Content[s] of texts given are relevant to [my] language learning needs

83 43

4.7) Materials (texts) are relevant to [my] English language needs

80 48

4.8) Approach to teaching in training is relevant to classroom teaching

77 73

4.9) Tasks in materials are unmanageable

23 30

Table 4 summarises participants’ views of the materials and methodology employed in the programme. Majorities of the English ELTs agreed that the materials encouraged cooperation and critical thinking, that rubrics were clear, and that trainers and trainees were involved in activities. The English ELTs also felt that teaching materials were appropriately sequenced, and that the materials and their contents were suited to their language learning needs. A majority of the English ELTs reported that the approach to teaching which was adopted during the training was appropriate to their own classroom contexts. Finally, a majority of the English ELTs rejected the proposition that the training tasks were unmanageable. The teachers of other subjects did not always share their English teaching colleagues’ perceptions, though, as a comparison of the second and third columns in Table 4 shows. For example, there were differences of between 32 and 40 points between the English teachers and the other teachers regarding the perceived relevance of the texts used during the programme (Propositions 4.7 and 4.6 respectively). There were also marked divergences of opinion of 20 percentage points between the English and non-


English teachers regarding the involvement of trainers and trainees and the sequencing of teaching materials (Propositions 4.4 and 4.5). Regarding their trainers, the English teachers and their non-English teaching colleagues were rather more similar in their opinions, as can be seen from Table 5. Most respondents, whatever subject they taught, agreed that the trainers’ approach was interesting, and that their trainers were flexible and interested in participants’ problems (Propositions 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3). In each of these aspects, though, the English teachers were rather more inclined to hold these opinions than were the non-English teachers.

Table 5 : Participants’ views of trainers

Proposition

% of English ELTs

agreeing + strongly

agreeing (N = 30)



(N = 40)

5.1) Approach used by trainers is interesting

97 80

5.2) Trainers are flexible 90 75

5.3) Trainers are interested in understanding what [my] problems are

80 70

5.4) Trainers’ methodology can be used in my teaching

70 68

5.5) Trainers always clarify instructions

67 68

5.6) Trainers give equal emphasis to all language skills

47 43

5.7) Trainers’ skills and methods of teaching are poor

7 8

In other respects, the two categories of teacher held almost identical views of their trainers (Propositions 5.4-5.7).

Table 6 : Participants’ views of timing and duration of ELIP training

Proposition

% of English ELTs

agreeing + strongly

agreeing (N = 30)



(N = 40)

6.1) Programme has been conducted at right time of year

80 10

6.2) Duration of each session is not sufficient

63 53

6.3) Course is long enough to develop four language skills

30 28

6.4) Time given for each unit is enough

23 55

6.5) Time [duration] of training programme is sufficient

20 38

6.6) Time given to each session is proportional with teaching material to be covered

13 45


Table 6 summarises respondents’ views of the timing and duration of the training. The English teachers and their non-English teaching colleagues agreed only that the duration of the course was not sufficient to enable them to develop the four language skills (Proposition 6.3). There were also some similarities in the opinions expressed by the two categories of teacher regarding the duration of sessions (too short, Proposition 6.2) and the overall duration of the training (too short, Proposition 6.5).

In other respects, however, there were major differences of opinion between the two groups. Most notably, four out of every five English teachers felt that the programme had been held at an appropriate time of the year, whilst nine out of ten teachers of other subjects felt that the opposite was the case (Proposition 6.1). Participants’ views of a number of administrative matters relating to the programme are summarised in Table 7. Participants tended to agree – whether they were teachers of English or of other subjects - that the training venue was appropriate (Proposition 7.1), that the number of participants in one class was appropriate (Proposition 7.2) and that there were enough copies of teaching materials (Proposition 7.4). These figures suggest that participants were largely happy with administrative arrangements. With regard to one administrative matter, however, there was a strongly held sense of dissatisfaction. Teachers in Ethiopia normally receive a daily incentive payment for attending workshops and training programmes. When training takes place outside their immediate locality they also receive a travel allowance. For the ELIP programme the daily allowance varied from region to region, from 6.5 birr to 70 birr.3

Table 7 : Participants’ views of administration of ELIP training





(N = 40)

7.1) Place where ELIP has been conducted encourages learning

60 60

7.2) Class size of training is a serious problem

23 20

7.3) There is sufficient incentive for ELIP

17 13

7.4) Lack of teaching materials is a serious problem

17 30

It is clear, however, that only very small numbers of both the English teaching and non-English teaching participants were able to accept the proposition (7.3) that this incentive was adequate.4 Finally, in Table 8, we can see the respondents’ views on a couple of miscellaneous matters. It is interesting to note that there was considerable disagreement between the English teachers and the non-English teachers with regard to the suitability of the way in which their learning had been evaluated (Proposition 8.1). More than three in every five of the English teachers felt that the evaluation procedure had been appropriate, whilst fewer than two in every five of the non-English teachers held this opinion.


Table 8 : Miscellaneous


+ strongly agreeing (N= 30)



(N = 40)

8.1) Evaluation procedures of training use appropriate instruments

63 38

8.2) Trainees’ resistance is a serious problem

23 23

Last of all, approximately a quarter of both categories of teacher reported that there had been a problem of resistance to the programme from some trainees (Proposition 8.2). From Tables 1 to 8 it is clear that in some respects the English ELTs shared some perceptions of the ELIP training with their non-English teaching colleagues but that with regard to other issues the views of the two groups differed. These similarities and differences can be summarised as follows. Almost all the participants (both English teachers and teachers of other subjects) : • rejected the idea that their English had not improved because of the course

(Proposition 3.4), even though other responses regarding the positive impact of the programme were rather mixed

• rejected the suggestion that the trainers used poor teaching methods (Proposition 5.7)

• believed that the programme encouraged cooperation between participants while they were studying (Proposition 4.1)

• agreed that the learning tasks which had been used encouraged critical thinking (Proposition 4.3).

Approximately three quarters to four fifths of participants (in both categories) : • agreed that the training approach had relevance to teaching in their own

classrooms (Proposition 4.8) • felt that they could adopt the trainers’ methods in their own teaching (Proposition

5.4) • rejected the suggestion that the learning tasks had been difficult to manage

(Proposition 4.9) • did not believe that the course had lasted long enough (Proposition 6.3) • did not feel that there had been too many participants in one class (Proposition

7.2) • could not accept that the financial incentive which they had been paid was

adequate (Proposition 7.3) • did not see that trainee resistance had been a major problem (Proposition 8.2). Around half to two thirds of participants (in both categories) : • agreed that trainers always provided clear instructions (Proposition 5.5) • agreed that trainers gave equal emphasis to each of the four language skills

(Proposition 5.6) • felt that the length of each training session was too short (Proposition 6.2) • were happy with the training venue (Proposition 7.1).


On the other hand, there were marked differences between the perceptions of the teachers of English and those of the teachers of other subjects in a number of areas. Those matters where differences were of at least 30 percentage points are as follows. More English teachers than teachers of other subjects : • felt that the objectives of the training had been clear (Proposition 2.1) • believed that their English had improved because of the course (Proposition 3.2;

but note the comment on responses to Proposition 3.4 above) • felt that the content of teaching texts had been relevant for their learning needs

(Proposition 4.6) • felt that the teaching texts themselves had been relevant (Proposition 4.7) • believed that the programme had been held at a suitable time of year (Proposition

6.1). Meanwhile, more of the teachers of other subjects than English teachers : • had the opinion that the time allocation for each unit was sufficient (Proposition

6.4) • perceived that the time allocated for each session was appropriate, considering the

material which was to be taught (Proposition 6.6). In other matters, the responses of teachers from the two sub-groups were rather more mixed. Interview findings

Interviews were conducted with the intention of complementing the questionnaire data. Fifteen ELTs were interviewed, of whom nine were more experienced teachers aged from 47 to 53. The remaining six interviewees were much younger, aged between 24 and 25. The interviewees were drawn from both Jimma and Addis Ababa. The first question was aimed at finding out what the overall attitude of the ELTs to the ELIP training was. The older ELTs commented that it was a ‘precious gift’ from the Ministry of Education, as they had not had any other training since graduating from their respective teacher training institutes many years before. One ELT who had been teaching for 35 years put it this way :

Although I learned English from grades one to twelve, I haven’t had the chance to use it since then. Most of us have only taught the alphabet and some two- or three-letter words. It has been a great joy for me to find out how much I knew. It has activated me. Now I can express what I know using English with full confidence.

The younger ELTs appreciated the opportunity to speak freely and to share experiences with other teachers. One commented :

Although I graduated two years back, my experience at school was harnessed [hampered?] by my teachers and my lack of confidence. When I started teaching, I was afraid to stand in front of my students and teach, especially


English. But now, as I have had the chance to express myself in front of others, I can teach confidently.

Overall attitudes appeared to be very positive, regardless of age group or length of teaching experience. The second question focused on the participants’ attitude towards the training materials. Their responses to this question were also generally positive. They felt that the materials encouraged independent learning and gave equal emphasis to all four language skills. Most of the interviewees preferred the speaking sections, however. The majority liked the books which had been used in face-to-face sessions, but they expressed reservations about the distance, self-study mode, materials. The reason for this was that they had been given inadequate orientation as to how to go about self-study. They all said that since their experience was of teacher-fronted classes, it was difficult for them to study individually. The third question tried to gauge the participants’ overall attitudes towards their trainers. They unanimously agreed that their trainers encouraged them, showed patience, gave corrections in a positive way, set a good example of applying the communicative methodology to classroom teaching, were very friendly and gave everybody a chance to participate and share their experiences. The informants agreed that their trainers were flexible and interested in understanding the trainees problems. One ELT, who had been teaching for thirty years, commented :

I never participated in class when I was a student, for I was afraid of my teacher’s pointing out my error and discouraging me for my wrong answers. But now, because my trainer never points out errors, directly pointing out to the one who made it, but makes us realise the error and helps us to correct it through practice, I participate; I am no more afraid of making mistakes.

The fourth question asked about the methodology which had been used in the training programme. All interviewees agreed that this methodology could be applied in their own classrooms to teach all subjects, not only English. Many reported that their students had now got used to working in groups; these students are now sharing their experiences with each other both in class work and in homework. In many classes, the number of students ranges from 60 to 67, so it is difficult to arrange for them to work in small groups. However, the teachers are still trying to apply the methodology which they first experienced during the ELIP training, as the following comments show :

After training in ELIP, I have confidence, so I give chances to my students to speak freely, work in groups and have competitions in rows.

I have changed my methodology. There is free discussion; I allow my students to speak freely, I don’t correct each and every error. I don’t dominate. I allow time for the students to group themselves.

The fifth question asked interviewees how far they could apply the knowledge gained from the ELIP programme to their own classrooms. The ELTs agreed that this knowledge could be applied, to a large extent. One of them commented :


I have encouraged and given chances to my students to use English. My students prepare short dramas and games in English and show them at the flag ceremony weekly. They learn consonants and vowels through songs. They like to work in groups. They work individually, group themselves and come up with uniform answers. This is what I learned from the ELIP and taught them to do.

Finally, informants were given the opportunity to raise any other issues which they considered to be important. All the ELTs commented on the duration of the training, as the following comments illustrate :

The time is not enough. How can you know English in 200 hours?

The time is not enough for people who have been deprived of practice. Some informants also commented on sustainability of the programme :

It shouldn’t stop. It must continue to Diploma stage. At first, there had been some resistance to the training programme, probably because teachers had had to give up their holidays (a time which they normally use to earn additional income) and because participation gave rise to no increase in professional standing or in income. However, it appears that teachers later began to identify benefits in the training, as the interviews demonstrate.

Conclusions

We have seen that, initially, teachers were somewhat resistant to the ELIP training scheme. The programme was not established in response to an expressed wish among teachers but was imposed upon them. Despite this resistance, many teachers gradually came to appreciate the value of the programme, not only as a language learning resource but also as a source of methodological ideas. Teachers of English were especially appreciative. Nevertheless, some issues still require attention if the programme is to develop further. • The objectives of the ELIP training should be clarified, not only to the teachers

participating in the programme but also to other educational institutions and interested parties throughout the country.

• There is a widespread feeling that the training programme is too short. • The question of sustainability or continuity of language training deserves

consideration. If learners come to the end of the course how can they maintain the level of language competence which they have achieved? The Regional Education Bureaux have overall responsibility for staff training and they will eventually have to consider whether to include English language training in their schemes for teachers, perhaps through the Continuous Professional Development programme.


• Supplementary materials (in particular, listening materials and reference materials) should be provided so as to help learners continue their studies. Also, learners require greater guidance on the use of distance learning or self-study procedures. As part of its long-term strategy to sustain ELIP, the Ministry of Education has committed itself to setting up English Language Resource Centres across the country. Preparations are currently underway in several regions to put these centres in place; they should be designed to provide the additional support which learners require.

• The timing of future training should take into account participants’ needs. • Some teachers of subjects other than English require English for the specific

purpose of teaching their subject. • The question of financial incentives for trainees requires a solution. • Encouragement and support from the REBs and the Zonal Education Offices are

appreciated. However, links between these offices and the wereda5 level are rather loose.

• Some members of the original cohort of KELTAs have left their regions to take up jobs elsewhere; a few have used the KELTA training as a springboard for further study at Master’s level. To fill the gap, a second cohort of KELTAs was trained in 2004-2005, bringing the total number to just under 200. However, there may be a need to organise trainer training programmes on a regular basis at the national and regional levels in order to maintain the supply of KELTAs.

• Attention must be paid to the needs of the large number of new teachers entering the workforce. As the Ministry of Education achieves greater school enrolment, so more and more teachers will be required. It is already planned that ELIP will move into the teacher education institutions to improve the English language and methodology of teacher trainers there and hence to create a more competent workforce of college and university graduates. However, it will take some time for this benefit to filter down into the schools.

• Further research into the impact and effectiveness of the training and the feasibility of extending the programme should be conducted.

• Stakeholders should act upon any recommendations that are made following internal and external monitoring and evaluation of the programme, including impact studies.

Notes 1 First cycle primary education consists of grades 1-4 whilst second cycle primary is grades 5-8. First cycle secondary education is grades 9-10; this leads on to vocational training. Second cycle secondary includes grades 11-12; it is also known as ‘preparatory’ and leads to higher education. 2 Some ELTs fell into other categories but space does not permit us to consider them in detail here. 3 At exchange rates applicable in March 2007, these are between £0.38 and £4.00 per day or between US$0.70 and US$7.90 per day. 4 It may be worth adding that the limited interview data which is available suggests that this opinion had softened somewhat by the end of the programme. Although participants still felt that the incentive was inadequate they were beginning to feel that the programme had been so beneficial in terms of increased skills and confidence that this was not after all such a major issue for them. In fact some interviewees even indicated that with hindsight they would have been willing to pay for the training themselves.


5 The wereda is a geopolitical unit, roughly equivalent to a county in the UK. There are more than 500 wereda in Ethiopia.

References

Ministry of Education. 2005. Education Statistics Annual Abstract 1996 E.C./2003-4. Addis Ababa : Ministry of Education. Siraj, A. 2005. A Descriptive Study of the ELIP-Trained Teachers’ Attitudes towards the English Language Improvement Programme (ELIP) : The Case of Jimma Zone. Unpublished MA thesis. Addis Ababa : Addis Ababa University.

Copley, Haylor and Savage Stories and change 164

Chapter 15

Telling stories, understanding lives, working toward change1

Kath Copley, Graham Haylor and William Savage

Introduction

Stories are helping us learn more about the livelihoods of the fishers and farmers with

whom we work in eastern India. We are engaged with these communities in

processes and activities aimed at improving their lives and promoting changes in

government policy and service delivery in aquaculture and fisheries. Stories are told

in several languages by women and men who fish and farm, about their lives, their

livelihoods and significant changes they have experienced. We also record stories as

narrated to us by colleague-informants. The written and spoken word, photographs,

drawings and films – all are used to document the stories of people’s lives, sometimes

prompted by questions as simple as ‘What do people talk about in the village?’

Through the power of language, stories can be an entry point into livelihoods

programming, monitoring and evaluation, conflict transformation and ultimately a

way of giving life to a rights-based approach to development.

‘Just ask us’

In October 2004, two of us (Graham and William) were in a workshop in eastern

India that was part of designing a monitoring and evaluation system which includes

the use of Significant Change Stories collected from fishers and farmers. As the

facilitator, one of us (William) posed a question to our fishing and farming

community colleagues about a process that we could develop together to collect,

filter, analyse and document stories of significant change in their lives and livelihoods

as a result of the work we had been doing together for several years. Their response

was, ‘We don’t need a process, just ask us and we’ll tell you.’

We were reminded once again of how easy it is to get caught up in the design of

processes and frameworks and structures, when what we really need to be doing is

simply to take the time to listen to people’s stories. For those of us who work toward

improvement in the lives and livelihoods of individuals and communities – what some

people might call development – we sometimes forget that the true knowledge about

people and their objectives comes from them, and all we have to do is ask and listen.

This chapter is about stories and how we are using storytelling to help us learn more

about the lives and livelihoods of people with whom we work, not only in eastern

India – from where our examples will come – but also in other countries where

STREAM (see below) works, and in the case of two of us (Kath and William), with

other organisations we work with as consultants. The chapter is also about how

telling and listening to stories enables us to begin understanding other people’s

perspectives, their realities, their truths, as we learn to combine these with our own

perspectives, realities and truths, so that we make possible complete descriptions of

the experiences we share and the situations we find ourselves in together.


Lives, livelihoods, policies and services

STREAM (Support to Regional Aquatic Resources Management) is an initiative of

the inter-governmental organisation called NACA, or the Network of Aquaculture

Centres in Asia-Pacific, based in Bangkok, Thailand, and supported by its member

governments. STREAM’s ‘rural development through aquaculture and fisheries’

activities happen through its four themes of livelihoods, institutions, policy

development and communications. We work with local government and non-

governmental colleagues in twelve of NACA’s sixteen member countries,

implementing projects ranging from capacity development for carrying out

livelihoods analysis with fishing communities, institutional development with

government departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and federations of

Self-Help Groups, engaging in processes leading to policy change, and sharing what

we learn through a variety of communications media.

Getting back to that workshop in eastern India in October 2004, we had been working

with these colleagues from tribal communities in three Indian states for several years

toward implementing improved government and non-governmental service provision

in aquaculture and fisheries. This followed as a result of a previous project where

together we had documented people’s experiences of government service provision,

set up a process for eliciting recommendations for policy changes, and eventually

presented these as a story to central and state policy-makers for their consideration.

Several of the recommendations actually resulted in changed policy, for example,

lengthening of lease periods on community ponds so that groups could make them

productive, and the establishment of One-stop Aqua Shops in villages so that potential

fish farmers would not have to travel to numerous locations for financial and material

support and information. It was the purpose of the second project to try out some of

the changes to service provision with the same communities who had been part of the

original documentation and recommendation process.

The story that was told to the policy-makers began through fieldwork carried out in

six villages across the three eastern Indian states of Jharkhand, Orissa and West

Bengal. Working in Hindi, Oriya and Bangla with local colleagues, we transformed

the spoken stories of fishers and farmers – women and men – into a series of case

studies representing a variety of experiences of service provision. These took the

form of film documentaries, storyboards with photographs, and written text. All of

this material was turned over to a local tribal playwright who crafted a street-play that

expressed the lives and livelihoods of the fishing communities, their experience of

trying to make a living in their traditional ways, the difficulties of doing that in the

present economic, social and political context, and the recommendations they made

for changes to policy and service provision that might offer an opportunity for them to

improve their circumstances.

During a Policy Review Workshop, the audience of policy-makers and representatives

of other stakeholders viewed the films, received the written reports and watched the

performance of the street-play. That workshop ended with people talking about the

sorts of commitments they could make to effect changes to policy and service

provision, which led in turn to the second project. As the screenwriter Robert McKee

(2003:52) says :


… to persuade people – [we need to unite] an idea with an emotion. The best

way to do that is by telling a compelling story. In a story, you not only weave

a lot of information into the telling but you also arouse your listener’s

emotions and energy.

Stories – telling and listening

We have come to believe that the importance of stories rests less on their being told

than on their being listened to. When we listen to other people’s stories, we are

demonstrating that we value what they have to say. When we act on what people are

telling us, we are showing that we believe they know what is best for themselves.

This requires us, however, to re-imagine how we view ourselves in our relationships

with the people with whom we work : ‘If talking openly means being willing to

expose to others what is inside of us, then listening openly means being willing to

expose ourselves to something new from others’ (Kahane 2004:73).

Carl Rogers, the psychotherapist and educator, suggested a test for the quality of our

listening and understanding :

The next time you get into an argument with your spouse, friend, or a small

group of friends, stop the discussion for a moment and suggest this rule :

‘Before each person speaks up, he or she must first restate the ideas and

feelings of the previous speaker accurately and to that speaker’s satisfaction.’

(Rogers & Roethlisberger 1991:98)

We have listened to and documented a variety of story types. People have told us

about the successes and failures they have had, changes that have happened, past

events, whether a particular aquaculture technology works or not. Stories are being

used to understand how people live, the significant changes that take place in their

lives, the impact that conflict has on individuals and communities, and how to enable

people to realise their right to be heard.

Livelihoods programming

STREAM does a lot of work in capacity development for people who carry out

livelihoods studies with communities, as components of research studies, or policy

change processes, or to design and implement activities to improve people’s

livelihoods. By using PLA2 tools, livelihoods teams gain an understanding of

communities’ lives in terms of the resources they see themselves as having, what they

are vulnerable to, processes and institutions that influence their lives, their livelihoods

strategies and the outcomes they desire for themselves. Even though this learning

primarily takes place through PLA tools, what is really happening – or possibly

happening – is that people in communities are telling the stories of their lives.

Telling and listening to stories opens a door to the potential for building relationships

and trust, which is fundamental to the kind of work we do. Are stories just a fun way

to work, only ends in themselves? Or are we talking about something more here :

creating connections, understanding and community among people who have different


political, ideological, social and financial realities, but who could work together to

make vulnerable people’s lives better? Let’s be bold and passionate. We are talking

about social justice here, aren’t we? We know from experience that telling and

listening to stories is a way to begin creating socially just change in a world that badly

needs that. As Margaret Wheatley writes :

I believe we can change the world if we start listening to one another again.

Simple, honest, human conversation. Not mediation, negotiation, problem-

solving, debate, or public meetings. Simple, truthful conversation where we

each have a chance to speak, we each feel heard, and we each listen well.

(2002:3)

… when we begin listening to each other, and when we talk about things that

matter to us, the world begins to change. (2002:9)

… There is no power greater than a community discovering what it cares

about. (2002:145)

By spending time with people, by valuing their lives and stories, we are able to

document with them their perspectives of the realities of their lives, as in the

following excerpts from a story written by one of our Indian colleagues, Dr Satyendra

Tripathi, told to him by Ms Thanda Mahato, of Jabarrah Village in West Bengal,

India:

We discussed the changes in her livelihood. During our last visit she had a

bank deposit of Rs40,000 but now she was left with only Rs5,000 owing to

various expenses which she had to incur during this period.

She was herself involved in selling fish as in the past, purchasing it from

Purulia or Lalpur markets and then selling it from door-to-door in villages

around Jabarrah, which fetches her anything from Rs30 to Rs100 per day.

However, this work is limited to winter months only as fish preserved in ice

fetches a low price and gets spoiled by noon if ice is not used. She sometimes

suffers a loss too.

Her husband, Mr Kalipada Mahato, goes for harvesting fish but has to hire a

net that costs him Rs200 which he pays after selling the catch (30% of the fish

caught) himself or through his wife, Thanda.

She has recently constructed a house on the land that belongs to her husband,

spending Rs70,000 for which she had to get the bricks for Rs21,000, pay

labour charges for five persons and two masons with food and also contribute

two labourers from the family. A neem tree that she had was cut to be used

for beams and other purposes.

An unexpected problem faced by her was the premature birth of her grandson

who weighed only 1.9 kg. She had to run to Purulia and keep her daughter-in-

law in the hospital and spend Rs12,000 in just one month. To meet these

expenses, she sold 14 goats at Rs500 each, about 1,400 kg of rice which she

had collected in lieu of the wages for grazing the village cattle for one year,


200 pairs of cowdung cakes for Rs1,000, and birds for Rs300, besides using

another Rs1,000 received from the salaries of her two sons.

Of her four sons and one daughter, the eldest son and her daughter have been

married. Her daughter has been widowed and has a school-going boy, who

now stays with her. A total of 11 relatives stay in her house. Her youngest

son and her grandson (daughter’s son) go to school. She borrowed Rs1,500

from a school teacher to put the two boys in school.

Thanda works hard from daybreak to dusk and has been such a great support

to her family! It was her planning and savings that helped her save the life of

her grandson and build a house for them all.

Monitoring and evaluation

STREAM has been developing a monitoring and evaluation system through which we

intend to capture two types of change : those that are expected and can be accounted

for through indicators that are objectively verifiable, and those which we do not

anticipate, and which are difficult to account for with pre-determined indicators. We

have been using Significant Change Stories to understand both types of change, and in

particular the unanticipated ones. This is based on an approach to monitoring and

evaluation originally developed by Rick Davies (1998) and his colleagues in an NGO

in Bangladesh, which they call Most Significant Change. When asking people to tell

Significant Change Stories, we ask a question like ‘What has changed in your

livelihood as a result of this work that we have done together?’

In a later workshop in the eastern India project, participants wrote significant change

stories in Bangla and then read them out. We asked questions about the particulars of

the stories, especially those which related to how people perceived the changes which

they had expressed. It became apparent as we listened to the stories that the

storytellers were also speaking as if in response to a question like ‘What do people in

the village talk about?’ and that this might also be a useful way of asking about

changes in people’s lives and livelihoods. The following story by Mr Kuddus Ansary,

of Kaipara Village in West Bengal, is an example of a significant change story. It is

called ‘Will and Self-confidence Show the Way of Victory.’

My house is in a remote village but I dream to make my village recognised

among the other five villages where I live. Before knowing others, I try to

know myself. By looking in the mirror frame of pictures of Swami

Vivekananda [a disciple of Ram Krishna] and Bidya Sagar [a social

revolutionary engaged in educational reform], I try to judge myself from the

inside.

Three years back I did not have this thinking, but now I think of how to

improve my locality with my livelihood. Three years back when I used to visit

different villages to help to make groups, I remember that women could not

come out of their houses. Political leaders were difficult to approach; it was

difficult to make them understand what, where and how development was

needed.


I remember that in an open meeting one of the political leaders not only

criticised my work with Self-Help Groups but also instructed the Panchayat

[local government] head not to sign any of my applications. At that time I

wondered whether there was anything wrong with my work; am I cheating

people? But still I have continued my work with will and self-confidence.

Now I am surprised to see that the same political leader is giving speeches on

group formation. Favourable conditions are coming and every organisation

(GOs [government organisations] and NGOs [non-government organisations])

is talking about group formation.

One of the disadvantages of groups formed by government projects is their

instability. No one is responsible for keeping records and information. Once

the government money gets exhausted everyone leaves the group, and

vulnerable people are not able to know about the development process.

Demands of people are growing now. They are no longer talking about

hunger and food but about electricity and paved roads. We also want that and

also the sustainability of each and every activity. Though government

organisations are talking about different job opportunities, we are not sure

about their applicability and effectiveness.

In the last year, through our efforts, we have established a One-stop Aqua

Shop (OAS). We will see in a few years if this is working. People who are

helping us are a long way off but still we know they can help. We are not

having many funds but still we are thinking how we can help communications.

STREAM has supported us by providing information, organising exposure

visits, and loaning a fishing net and hundies [fish transport containers].

Through the work of the last year we have realised that we can do something

better for ourselves. We know that government will not help us much but the

Federation of Self-Help Groups we have established will help us in our

development. We do not have structural support but we are having will

power, and we can do it. We will win.

Conflict transformation

Stories are also essential to efforts at transforming situations of conflict into

opportunities for reconciliation. When we are able to hear about the impact of

conflict on other people’s lives, and can tell them of how our own lives have been

affected by conflict, we begin to understand that ultimately there will be no winners,

that we are all losing. But changing the nature of the conflict discourse to discussions

of impact – rather than debates about who is right and who is wrong – is not easy.

There must be an agreement and commitment on all sides that this is the direction we

want to take the discussion. As Kahane (2004:2) writes :

Our talking and listening often fails to solve complex problems because of the

way that most of us talk and listen most of the time. Our most common way

of talking is telling : asserting the truth about the way things are and must be,

not allowing that there might be other truths and possibilities. And our most


common way of listening is not listening : listening only to our own talking,

not to others. This way of talking and listening works fine for solving simple

problems piece by piece, applying solutions that have worked in the past. But

a complex problem can only be solved peacefully if the people who are part of

the problem work together creatively to understand their situation and to

improve it.

The Norwegian conflict mediation pioneer Johan Galtung (Achakulwisut 2003)

pushes the purpose of conflict transformation even further :

We are not so interested in the beginning or making people understand each

other. We are much more interested in making a creative jump, bringing them

to a new point and making it better.

Kahane again (2004:125) puts it this way :

We did not put our ideas together. We put our purposes together. And we

agreed, and then we decided.

And when we put our purposes together we can sometimes be transformed. As the

Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh (1995:8) says :

In a true dialogue, both sides are willing to change. … We have to believe

that by engaging in dialogue with the other person, we have the possibility of

making a change within ourselves, that we can become deeper. … We have

to allow what is good, beautiful, and meaningful in the other’s tradition to

transform us.

Finally, from Kahane (2004:102) once more, a reminder that, by mindful sharing of

ourselves, we can discover our own and each other’s commitments and roles within a

common purpose :

… stories enabled the participants to understand their individual and group

roles as part of the problem and what they needed to do to be part of the

solution. These understandings can occur through any kind of open

conversation, but they often occur through personal storytelling. When people

choose to tell a personal story in such a group, they are revealing something of

themselves. They are sharing what matters to them about this problem.

Furthermore, because (in Carl Rogers’ paradoxical phrase) ‘what is most

personal is most universal,’ these stories also illuminate the source of the

group’s shared commitment.

Approaching development through people’s rights : Power through language

A typical understanding of a rights-based approach to development is that it addresses

the underlying causes of poverty and social injustice, rather than the symptoms of it.

We can learn about people’s own perceptions of injustices, of the realisation or denial

of their rights, and whether people consider themselves empowered over their own

circumstances, by listening to their stories, and by finding ways to contribute to what


people say they need, rather than what we think they need. As Uvin (2004:179) puts

it, ‘A rights-based approach to development means listening to and respectfully

working with marginalised groups …’

How should we be working as development practitioners? As listeners to stories? As

people who are in positions to mediate between the realities of people’s lives and

opportunities that may exist to improve them? In India, comfortable local

conversations in villages were the beginning of a journey of stories that led to policy-

makers (and policy change) in Delhi. According to Uvin (2004:183), we need to :

… give much more priority to promoting local dialogues, to stimulating local

knowledge generation and research, to finding ways of making people’s voices

heard by those in power – both out of respect for the dignity of people and

because they are the ones who have to live with the consequences of being

wrong. As a matter of fact, this may well be one of the things in which

external aid agencies have a comparative advantage : to create spaces for

discussion, for innovative knowledge, for thinking – and listening. Their

external nature allows them to be less implicated than locals and thus to take a

leadership role in the emergence of new knowledge.

In the tangle of the international development world, where we use management tools

and somewhat latterly rediscovered monitoring, evaluation and learning, we often aim

to anticipate outcomes, and define their indicators in advance. These actions are a

comfort to those who, with some justification, seek assurances about impact from

their spending. Yet sharing of ourselves, being open to change and to being

transformed is not the stuff of fixed schedules and predictable outcomes. It is rather

more personal, unpredictable, individual and challenging - it’s the source of stories.

As Kahane (2004:77) reminds us, we must constantly roll back the barriers and take

on the hard part :

We peace people have always listened to the oppressed and disenfranchised …

One of the new steps I think we should take is to listen to those we consider

‘the enemy’ with the same openness, non-judgment, and compassion we listen

to those with whom our sympathies lie. Everyone has a partial truth, and we

must listen, discern, and acknowledge this partial truth in everyone –

particularly those with whom we disagree.

And, again from Kahane, our essential roles are to provide the stage, the page and our

selves :

… the job of the facilitator is to help the participants speak up, listen up, and

bring all of their personal resources to the work at hand. Our job is not to

direct or control the participants … even though we [remain] neutral with

respect to the substance of the participants’ work, our process [is] not neutral :

it embodie[s] values of openness, inclusion, and collaboration. (2004:127)

… Our job as facilitators and leaders is simply to help create a clean, safe

space. Then the healing will occur. (2004:89)

‘Just ask us …’


Notes 1 This chapter is a revised version of a paper which was originally presented at both the 7th Language

and Development Conference and the 2nd International Conference on Culture and Development

(Bangkok, 2005). It has also been published under the same title as Copley, Haylor and Savage (2006)

in the Proceedings of the Bangkok conference and appears here with the permission of the editor of

that volume.

2 Chambers (2005:xxi) defines PLA, or Participatory Learning and Action, as a ‘term designed to be

more inclusive of participatory methodologies than implied by the term PRA [Participatory Rural

Appraisal] on its own.’

References

Achakulwisut, A. 2003. Transforming conflict (an interview with Johan Galtung).

Bangkok Post, 31 May 2003.

Chambers, R. 2005. Ideas for Development. London and Sterling VA : Earthscan.

Copley, K., Haylor, G. and Savage, W. 2006. Telling stories, understanding lives :

Working toward change. In K.C.Kettle (ed.), Selected Papers from the Second

International Conference on Culture and Development : Celebrating Diversity,

Achieving Equity, 128-138. Bangkok, Thailand : SEAMEO-SPAFA.

Davies, R. 1998. An evolutionary approach to organisational learning : An

experiment by an NGO in Bangladesh. In D.Mosse, J.Farrington and A.Rew (eds),

Development as Process : Concepts and Methods for Working with Complexity, 68-

83. (Routledge Research/ODI Development Policy Studies.) London and New York:

Routledge.

Kahane, A. 2004. Solving Tough Problems : An Open Way of Talking, Listening,

and Creating New Realities. San Francisco : Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

McKee, R. 2003. Storytelling that moves people. Harvard Business Review

81(6):51-55.

Rogers, C.R. and Roethlisberger, F.J. 1991. Barriers and gateways to

communication. Harvard Business Review, November-December:97-103.

Thich Nhat Hanh. 1995. Living Buddha, Living Christ. New York : Riverhead

Books.

Uvin, P. 2004. Human Rights and Development. Bloomfield : Kumarian Press.

Wheatley, M.J. 2002. Turning to One Another : Simple Conversations to Restore

Hope to the Future. San Francisco : Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Contributors 173

Contributors

Judith Altshul has MA degrees from the University of Oxford, UK, and Rutgers

University, USA. She is currently a VSO volunteer at the Ministry of Education in

Ethiopia advising on curriculum development for English language and is a member

of the Coordinating Committee for the English Language Improvement Programme

(ELIP).

Almaz Baraki has an MA in Foreign Languages & Literature from Addis Ababa

University, Ethiopia, and a Trainer Development postgraduate qualification from the

University of Exeter, UK. She is currently (2006-2007) an MEd student in Trainer

Development at the College of St Mark and St John/University of Exeter.

Herman M. Batibo is Professor of African Linguistics at the University of Botswana.

His doctoral research at the Sorbonne, Paris, investigated the phonology of Bantu

languages. He is current President of the World Congress of African Linguistics and

a member of many international organisations dealing with language promotion and

preservation.

John Clegg is a freelance education consultant based in London, UK. He specialises

in education through the medium of English as a second language in primary and

secondary schools. He works in content and language integrated learning in Europe,

English-medium education in Africa and multicultural education in the UK.

Robert Chambers is a Research Associate in the Participation, Power & Social

Change Team at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK. His

current concerns include participatory methodologies, knowing and not knowing in

development, community-led total sanitation, and personal and institutional learning

and change.

Gideon Cohen is a research fellow of Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, where he

lectures on sociolinguistics in the Department of Linguistics. His main area of focus

is changes in language use resulting from migration and the changes in the

geopolitical structures of the Ethiopian State.

Kath Copley works as a communications specialist with non-governmental and

government institutions in a range of sectors : agriculture, health, governance and

leadership, development management, strategic planning. Her professional interests

include participatory development approaches and relationships between language,

power and poverty. She is based in NSW, Australia, and works worldwide.

Mohamed Hassan Dardig has an MA in English Language Teaching from Khartoum

University, Sudan. He is a lecturer in English language at Ahfad University for

Women, Omdurman, a pioneer educational institute for female education in Sudan

and in Africa more broadly.

Amy Hamlyn has been teaching and teacher training since 1995 and is currently

studying for an MSc in Development Management. Following two teacher and

Contributors 174

trainer education projects in Sri Lanka she is now Training and Curriculum

Development Adviser for a UN Habitat civic education programme in Afghanistan.

Graham Haylor works with people whose livelihoods include foraging, fishing and

culturing aquatic resources, as well as services providers and those who influence

policies impacting those livelihoods. A preoccupation is ways for communication to

improve the provision of services and the development of policies that can contribute

toward poverty alleviation.

Adrian Holliday is Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of Graduate School at

Canterbury Christ Church University, UK. He directs doctoral research in the critical

sociology of TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). His most

recent book is The Struggle to Teach English as an International Language (2005).

Hélène Fatima Idris has an MA in Arabic and is currently a doctoral student in

African languages at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Most of her professional

experience has been outside academia, as a financial manager, accountant and pre-

school teacher.

Psyche Kennett has worked on English language in-service teacher education and

curriculum development projects at national and sub-national levels in Sri Lanka,

Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Qatar. She is currently involved in a GTZ

governance and development project in the tsunami- and conflict-affected North East

Province of Sri Lanka.

Karsten Legère is Professor of African Languages at the University of Gothenburg,

Sweden. He has both a PhD and a ‘Habilitation’ qualification (Higher PhD) in

African Linguistics. He has worked as Associate Professor, University of Dar es

Salaam (Kiswahili Department) in Tanzania, and as Professor of African Languages,

University of Namibia.

Richard Lunt has been involved in English language teaching since 1988. He is

currently Deputy Director of the British Council in Tanzania. He has worked for the

American Language Centre in Syria and for the British Council in Tunisia, Yemen,

Syria, Qatar, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Nigussie Negash is Assistant Professor of Education at the Ethiopian Civil Service

College, where he serves as Director of the Centre for Learning and Professional

Development. He has an MA from the University of Reading and PhD from the

College of St Mark & St John, University of Exeter, UK.

Teshome Nekatibeb is Chief Advisor on Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and

Policy Analysis in the Academy for Educational Development, part of the USAID-

funded Basic Education Strategic Objective Project in Ethiopia. Previously he was

Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education, Addis Ababa

University. His PhD is from Stockholm University, Sweden.

Tove Rosendal is currently undertaking doctoral research in the department of

Oriental and African languages at University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Previously,

Contributors 175

she worked in education, as an executive for a non-governmental adult education

organisation and as a trainer of trainers in southern Africa and eastern Europe.

William Savage works around the world with international and local non-

governmental, inter-governmental and international organisations, and government

agencies. He is a facilitator in areas from capacity-building and communications to

resource mobilisation and strategic planning, with experience in fields including

agriculture, child rights, education and language. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand.

Fauzia Shamim is Professor in the Department of English, University of Karachi,

Pakistan. Until recently, she was engaged in teacher education and research at the

Institute for Educational Development, Aga Khan University, Karachi. Her PhD, on

teacher-learner behaviour in large classes, was awarded by the University of Leeds,

UK.

Ahmed Siraj is a Lecturer in English at Adama Teacher Education College, Ethiopia.

He was previously an English instructor at Jimma Teacher Education College. He has

a BA in English and an MA in Teaching English as a Foreign Language from Addis

Ababa University.

The 7th International Language and Development Conference which took place in

Addis Ababa in October 2005 was the first of the series to take place on the African

continent.

Hywel Coleman, the editor of these proceedings, is Honorary Senior Research Fellow

in the School of Education at the University of Leeds, and is currently Team Leader

for School Based Management in the Decentralised Basic Education Project,

Indonesia, 2005-2008. Hywel has edited and co-edited many books, including

Society and the Language Classroom (CUP), Working with Language (Mouton) and

Change and Language (Multilingual Matters, with Lynne Cameron).

ISBN 978-99944-813-0-9

Master Printing Press PLC

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